


Resurgence of Mand'alor

by Scion_of_Olympia



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Fixation on Republic Weapons and War Gear, Force Sensitive Mandalorian, Force Sensitivity, Honor Among Most Thieves and Mercenaries, Mandalorian Culture, Mando'a, Mostly Amoral OC, My Mando needs help, Unhealthy fixation, Will Take Some Liberties with Lore, canon compliant mostly, learning as I go, sorry for mistakes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:49:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25343470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scion_of_Olympia/pseuds/Scion_of_Olympia
Summary: In a space port on Mandalore, a bounty hunter gets a second chance to remake himself into one of the most feared mercenaries in the Galaxy. In this powder keg of a galaxy, it only takes a spark to ignite a firestorm of conflict. He is that spark.
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**The Newcomer**

The planet Mandalore, witness to countless conflicts throughout its rich, yet violent history. From the early days of the Republic to the golden age of the Empire currently, all have fought for the strategic planet, for its resources, weapons, ships and warriors. The planet was barren, rendered lifeless after the Mandalorian Civil War, all that's left is a white, dry, uninhabitable expanse. The space port, on the other hand, was always full of life, a hub of activity, countless ships of all shapes and sizes flew into port, dropping off cargo, doing business with buyers of all varieties of goods and services, especially bounty collection. Many a body had been left in the wake of Mandalore's bounty hunters, be they major players, or small time hustlers looking for a quick score. The bar at the port was one of the most well known on the planet, Te Basilisk's kovid, or The Basilisk's Head in common.

The bar itself always had little to no light, save for the occasion lamp at the bar, and at a table here and there. It was not the upscale, casino-esque bars where business tycoons and mobsters roamed freely, nor was it the back end of a sarlaac pit full of the scum of the universe. It was somewhere in between. Currently, there was a man sitting on a bar stool nursing a glass of Corellian brandy, the taste of the cool liquid soothing his throat. He was a man of a medium build, standing at six feet tall at the shoulder, had a small, black beard on his face, which had tan skin, and wore a mishmash of armor pieces, the most common being imperial plastoid. His helmet however, betrayed his ancestry and origin, the infamous T shaped visor clearly showing his mandalorian heritage, the blue paint accenting the contours of his helmet. The bartender, a bothan, meandered over to where he sat, and began to clean a shot glass.

"Haven't seen you here before, what's your story stranger?" the bothan asked, making the Mandalorian push his helmet forward a bit, surprising the bartender.

"A Mandalorian, don't usually see your folk around here much, most of them pursuing bounties. What's your name stranger?"

"Tos Olgyg."

The man, Tos, wasn't in a real mood to talk. He had just failed to collect three bounties he had signed for, and his reputation had plummeted to the lowest of the low. Tos was practically a nobody now. He had worked so hard to become a force to be reckoned with by the local private security services and gang bosses. Many a night he had to spend in place to catch his targets, hours upon hours spent patiently waiting for the right moment to strike. All of that success gone in just a few hours. Nobody wanted to hire him. He had gone to his usual clients for a score, but they just gave him a look and walked away, talking to a different rising bounty hunter in the process. He was at rock bottom, and he doubted that anything could help him or his reputation.

"Nice to meet you Tos. If I may ask, what are you doing here, aren't mandalorians bounty hunters by trade, or at least mercenaries?"

"I've run down on my luck, haven't been able to get any contracts lately."

This caused the bothan to chuckle a bit, the mandalorian to give him a glowering stare. The bothan raised his hands in surrender, still somewhat chuckling. The bothan could tell by that stare that this man wasn't one to mess around with, even if he was in a near pitiful state.

"I wasn't making fun of you Tos, I was just laughing at how an opportunity to, how do you say, 'collect' a payment from a usual to my bar just showed up. It's not the 10k credits that you are accustomed to getting, knowing the skills of a mando as a fighter, but it may get you back on your feet," the bothan said.

"Who, where, and how much?" Tos asked candidly

"Straight and to the point, I like that. His name is Dreval, a chiss who's run up quite a debt to me, but is unwilling to pay, and hightailed it to the local police, blabbering some things that he shouldn't have. Currently, he's under house arrest in the workers district until they bring him in for questioning, and they have me under close watch. Now I can't really go anywhere, besides my bar, the market, and my house without looking suspicious, so I have no way to reach him. But, if you can knock some sense into him and make him pay up, along with forgetting everything he knows and denying what he said to the police, I will give you a hefty sum of credits to compensate for your efforts. Around 2k credits, what do you say?" he said, stretching his arm out for a handshake.

Two thousand credits? Just for a shake up? That's it? It seemed too good to be true, it really did. He happens to be down on his luck, with no plan to fix his situation, then out of nowhere he gets offered money to go collect money from a stingy bar patron. Well, Tos guesses that the universe has something else in store for him other than drinking his sorrows and guilt away. He nodded once and shook the bothan's hand, drinking the rest of the brandy and setting the glass near the bartender, hefting his blaster onto his shoulder whilst leaving the bar. He got onto his speeder, and made his way to the market, his blaster was near empty and he didn't want to chance running out of ammo on the job.

He parked his speeder near the entrance of the market and looked around. There was a four way street, the sidewalks lined with market booths with some selling fruits and meats, while others were dealing in less that honorable practices, twi'leks and togrutas bound in chains near a booth, while a sleazy toydarian and an Anomid bartered over the price of the slaves. Anomids were humanoid, with grey hair and silver-blue eyes, and stood around five feet tall. He disregarded them and made his way to a weapons shop he's visited before, The Gunslinger's Arsenal, walking into the building after the automatic sliding door opened.

The shop had shelves displaying numerous weapons, from rebel and imperial blasters, to corellian designs, mon calamari blasters, and some mandalorian blasters here and there. His blaster, a corellian make, was wearing down, and needed to be replaced before it broke completely. Tos began to browse the shelves skimming over the rebel blasters, not even looking at the imperial models. While he didn't have anything personal against the Empire, he couldn't bring himself to purchase their weaponry. It was a similar situation for rebel blasters and equipment. He didn't respect either side enough to consider their equipment viable replacements. The store owner, a corellian by the name of Amanuel, waved at him from the counter and went back to inspecting a blaster that piqued Tos's interest. It was of the Clone War era, that much he could tell, a medium sized blaster, with a plasma magazine coming out of the side, and a fold-able stock. It looked like a experimental E-11 blaster rifle the stormtroopers use, only more rudimentary

"Amanuel, what blaster is that" he asked, the store owner looked up from inspecting the weapon.

"This is a DC-15s blaster carbine, used by the Old Republic during the Clone War. It was very hard to come by, had to sweet talk some higher ups at Blas Tech, but I got it. I also managed to get its bigger counterpart, the DC-15a blaster rifle. Both combined would amount to about 1k credits. Very good collector items, and even better blasters in the hands of a trained expert," Amanuel said, pulling out the blaster rifle and setting it down near the carbine.

Tos had the required amount, but he wasn't sure if it would affect him negatively in the long run. He looked at his used corellian blaster, the paint chipping away at some parts of the blaster, the mechanisms nearly broken from use. He decided that he will pay the required amount, with a little cut of the price due to him selling his blaster to Amanuel, and left the building, holding the blaster rifle while the carbine was on his back, held there by a magnetized piece of armor.

He was walking near a food vendor, the Devaronian selling bantha steaks to any passerby willing, when he was thrown off of his feet by an explosion. He turned upright in mid air, and landed crouched, with the DC-15a drawn. He had a light ringing in his ear, but he shook it off, his armor taking the brunt of the shock wave and sound. Fire had spread onto several booths, others near the explosion were incinerated, the goods of each booth smoking and burnt. He saw the perpetrators hightailing it from the scene, catching a glimpse of the rebel symbol on their armor as they turned left into an alley. Tos was pushed to the side as imperial stormtroopers arrived onto the scene, some of the fire brigade with them began to put out the fire. He turned to a stormtrooper who walked up to him.

"Mandalorian, do you know who did this, and where they went?" he asked, though it sounded like a demand.

"What's in it for me?" he asked.

"There is a five hundred credit reward for the capture of the rebel cell in this area, three hundred for helpful information," the stormtrooper said.

"They went left down the third alley on this street to the left."

The stormtrooper handed him a handful of credits and signaled to the rest of his squad, the imperials booking it to the alley in question, with Tos walking back to his speeder with three hundred credits in his pocket. Like he said earlier, he didn't respect either side, but he was willing to work with them if offered the right amount of credits. He flew off towards the workers district, dodging the numerous cars and speeder bikes of imperials as he made his way. As he was flying across the city, he noticed a nice bar not too far from the district and parked his speeder outside, putting the vehicle in lock down mode and walking to the workers district. It was a medium sized district, with crowds of people clogging the streets to make it to their jobs on time, occasionally resulting in a fight, which will escalate into a brawl, where stormtroopers will have to break up the fight with force if needed.

He decided to ask around to see if anyone knew of the chiss he was looking for. But so far, no results. Everyone he asked either looked away and made an excuse to leave, or just didn't know. It was starting to look like his previous contracts, and he didn't like that. He leaned onto the side of an abandoned house and lit up a deathstick, blowing the smoke in the form of a ring, smiling at his skill. He waited for a while, puffing his deathstick every now and then as he pondered his options. He could get the info by force, but that would raise unwanted attention, and that he couldn't have at the moment. He could bribe...no, he was running low on credits, only having about four hundred left. He sighed at his luck.

"Dreval better keep my business on the down low, or else he won't be seeing daylight after today," a voice said, making Tos snap his head towards the voice, identifying it as a Bith talking to a twilek dressed in elaborate garbs. Perhaps his luck was turning around after all. He smirked, and made his way over to the Bith, making sure to keep out of sight as he walked through the crowd of people, blending in well despite wearing glaringly obvious plastoid armor. The bith and twilek were so engrossed in their conversation, that they didn't notice his approach until he grabbed the bith's shoulder, making him and the twilek jump in surprise.

"Gentlemen, may I talk to you somewhere more, privately," he said, with a cold, threatening tone in his voice, which made the twilek and bith agree with shaky nods. He led them to an abandoned factory building, and shoved them onto the ground. His methods were sometimes called cruel or sadistic, but those that said those words didn't have the kill record or bounty record he had. His methods got the job done, and he was fine with that.

"I am looking for a chiss named Dreval, know the name?" Tos asked.

"What's it to ya huh?" the bith asked.

Tos took note of the twilek slowly backing away.

"I am a personal friend of his, and I need to talk to him about urgent matters regarding a certain debt he owes, know where he is?" he said in a facetious manner.

"Yea I know where that scumbag lives, but what's in it for me, why should I tell you?" the bith asked in an arrogant tone.

"Because you will leave this building alive if you talk. If not, they will be broadcasting you and your friend's brutal murder across the holo net tomorrow," Tos said in a candid, detached way, noticing the paling of the twileks face, who looked incredulously at his bith companion when he scoffed.

"You don't have the balls mandalorian. I run a massive enterprise under the nose of the law, selling goods that you would find nowhere else. I also have a lot of bounty hunters on my beck and call, so it would be in your best interests to not threaten me," the bith said, his twilek friend finally screamed in fear and made a break for it, falling to the ground with a pained grunt as he was shot, smoke coming out of Tos's DC-15s as he pointed it towards the bith.

"I think that you should start talking, or you will end up like your friend there," he said.

"Alright I'll talk! Dreval lives on Val rum street, third house on the right!" he said, pissing himself in the process.

Tos grimaced in disgust, and shot the bith. That was disgusting, at least face your death in a presentable manner, not cowering and pissing yourself like a coward. He left the warehouse with his blaster on his shoulder, quickly making his way to the street the bith told him Dreval lives on. He looked around, eventually spotting the third house on the right side of the street. It was a two story house made with durasteel. It wasn't fancy or elaborate, simple in design. He walked up to the house, quickly hiding behind a building when he saw imperial scout troopers on the rooftops with E-11 long range blasters in their hands. He quickly counted four in total as he moved from house to house, being careful enough to stay out of the imperial's watch, and slipped to the house.


	2. Spark of Ambition

Tos parked his speeder near the Basilisk's Head and hefted his blaster onto his shoulder. He walked into the bar garnering a few looks from some of the patrons at his appearance, with the mishmash of plastoid and durasteel armor pieces. He made his way to the bar, set his blaster against the metal table, and waited for the bothan, who was serving another customer. The bothan did a double take when he saw the mandalorian and smiled, giving the customer his drink and walking over to him.

"So I take it that Dreval will be paying his debt sometime soon?" the bothan asked.

Tos nodded and held out his hand in which the bothan poured a handful of credits into. Tos counted the amount to see if he was being cheated then quickly pocketed the credits.

"Now that you've proven yourself to me, I have another contract that no one has had the guts to take"

"What's the contract?"

"An imperial shipment of spices and other 'valuable' goods is on its way here. Currently it's near Sarapin and its being guarded by a light escort of one Strike Class Cruiser. I need someone to get the cargo but no one's brave enough to mess with the imperials. Doesn't matter when I get them, only that I get them. You in?" the bothan asked with one eyebrow raised.

Tos shook his head in disbelief with a small smile on his face. Of all the things he could've said, it had to be a raid on imperial shipments. He's had a couple of run ins with the imperials, stealing a few ships from them in the past as well as acquiring weapons for the rebellion once. He doesn't care for either side. He's not patriotic nor is he a revolutionary. At the end of the day, as long as he has credits to his name he will work for either side to get them.

"You don't know how long it's been since I had gotten one of those. My skills at flying may be rusty, but I can kill a good number of stormtroopers. How many credits are we talking about?" Tos asked.

The bothan smiled and handed a data pad he pulled from under the counter to the mandalorian, watching the astonished look on Tos's face.

"I may own a bar and work at it most of the time, but I do run a few businesses on the side as well. You can't afford to have drinks as good as mine without some serious credits to buy fresh ingredients."

Tos nodded. He noticed information was uploaded to his HUD on his helmet regarding the mission. He thanked the bothan and walked out of the bar towards his speeder, mounting the speeder and zipping through the lanes of traffic as he sped towards the shipyards. He noticed something interesting on the holo news. It regarded infamous gangster Brimal Hadtoken, a bith who ran the criminal underground in the workers district, who was found murdered along with an unknown compatriot. He smirked. He told the bith that his death would be broadcasted. Oh well.

He made it to the shipyards and slowed his speeder down, slowly cruising along the lines of ships looking for his own. Tos passed numerous ships, some that were large and could hold hundreds of people, while others were just a single pilot ship. He finally found his ship, and frowned. His ship was a Charger C-70 Retrofit, used during the old republic. He had hired a crew to man it but that had been months ago. Now he had no crew and no way to get out of here. His ship was a bit old and was empty on fuel when he checked the power generator. He walked over to a nearby fueling station and attacked the fueling conduit to his ship, dispensing the required amount of credits into a slot on the station. Once his ship was filled he entered the ship, shooting some abnormally large rats as he cleaned the ship.

'The shielding is fine, the turbolaser batteries are operational, and the pods can actually shoot away from the ship. Now I need a crew' he thought.

He locked down his ship and sped off towards a nearby bar, a bar for the lower dregs of society if the lack of decent speeders were any indication. Perfect candidates for this contract. He parked his speeder and put it on lock mode, shooting a Gotal when it tried to steal his speeder. Tos entered the bar and was immediately assaulted by the noxious fumes that permeated the entirety of the bar. He put on his helmet to help filter out the stench and made his way to the bar counter. In the far back of the bar was a red curtain and next to it were a few scantily clad women of various species, mostly twi'leks and humans. He took his eyes away from the stimulating sight to stand near the counter.

"I'll have a Corellian Brandy" he said to the bartender who grunted and filled him a shot glass, which he drained in one gulp.

Tos discreetly peered into the crowds and tables inside the bar in hopes of finding suitable candidates for his crew. He spotted potential crew mates but they lacked discipline from what he could tell by their drunken ramblings about conquests they have made and the credits they have spent. An hour passed but so far none of the bar patrons were meeting his standards. For the foreseeable future as a bounty hunter/smuggler he wants his crew to be professional, giving a better impression for future clients looking into his services. They must be disciplined under fire in the event that they were boarded, which was highly unlikely but you can't be too careful. They must be able to operate systems related to flight through space, weaponry, and the acquisition of cargo important to future contracts.

Then, he found them. Three men walked in first, two humans and a rodian, and made their way to the rear of the bar and sat down with their backs faced towards the wall. The three conversed and drank away most of their credits and then just talked to each other. The second group consisted of four individuals. There were two humans, a male twi'lek, and a bothan. They looked at each other and nodded as they made their way to the bar counter, ordering a round of drinks in celebration of something by the way they were gesturing and toasting. He decided to talk to the first group first as there were fewer of them and needed less convincing. Tos slid over his shot glass to the bar tender and made his way to the table the three were at, taking a seat near the rodian which stopped all conversation as they turned to look at him.

"Greetings gents, the name's Tos. I have a proposition I am fairly certain you will accept" he said.

The rodian started to speak but soon stopped with an exasperated look when he realized he wasn't being understood so turned to one of the humans for translation purposes. Tos glanced at both the human and the rodian as the rodian spoke a few sentences and waited for the human to translate.

"He says that his name is Glii Va Jovani, and he is wondering why you are certain that we will accept your offer" said the human who looked kind of scruffy with the five o' clock shadow.

"Well Glii Va I am looking for crew to help pilot my ship. I recently got a contract that will pay big money if I can pull it off but I am in need of a crew to help me with the endeavor. You will be properly compensated when the contract is finished I can assure you. All I need is for you three to help pilot my ship and help me complete the contract" Tos said, noticing the glances shared between the three.

"How much are we talking in terms of credits?" the human translated.

Tos smirked and wrote down a number and handed it to the rodian who spluttered when he saw it. The other two had similar reactions when shown the amount.

"You three will be able to live comfortable lives and can spend what you make on whatever you want. All I ask is for you to help me on this contract. If we succeed you three will get your cuts and you can be on your way".

The three agreed readily and nodded when he told them which docking station to go to. He watched them go out the door and stood up from the table intending to go to the other group that walked in. He was a bit surprised when they asked no questions about the contract, but they were probably distracted by the crazy amount of credits that they might earn if they completed the contract. He anticipated the next bunch to be a little more cautious, a little more curious about details and such. Tos took a seat near the twi'lek and was immediately greeted with wary stares.

"Greetings gents, the name's Tos. I have a proposition that you may want to look into" he said.

"What sort of proposition mandalorian?" the twi'lek asked.

"I was contracted to steal some spices and 'valuable' goods from an imperial shipment headed its way here. Now the intel I got says that only a small escort will be guarding it. Thing is, I'm running low on crew to help pilot my ship. If you are willing to help me in this contract, you all will be properly compensated with your cut of the contract and you will be free to go after this is done." he said.

"How small of an escort? Your version and my version of a small escort may differ, and I don't want my pals here to die because they weren't properly informed." one of the humans said with the rest of the party nodding in agreement.

"One Strike Class cruiser will be guarding the transport. The transport we will be boarding is unarmed and lightly manned. Now if you are willing to help me complete this contract you will get your cut of the pay."

"How much are we talking here mandalorian?" the bothan said.

Tos wrote down the number and handed it to the bothan, who looked at him incredulously before sharing it with his companions. They reluctantly agreed to his proposal and headed towards the docking station his ship was at after he told them. He ordered a strong brandy and gulped it down before leaving the bar and getting onto his speeder and heading to the docking station. As he made his way to his ship he laughed at how easy it was to convince a bunch of people to potentially die for a boat load of credits. Goes to show you that anyone has a price for anything, even their own lives. He reached his ship and was pleased that all seven mercenaries were at the docking station, milling about until one of them spotted him which made all of them turn towards him.

"Alright men, we are headed towards the coordinates provided to me by my employer. The cargo ship is a BFF-1 bulk freighter guarded by a Strike Class cruiser. We need to go in hard and fast. Surprise is our best friend on this mission. I expect you to work and fight to the best of your abilities. When you board the ship I expect you men to have discussed who works what job and where. Load up" Tos said and lowered the boarding ramp to let the hired men on. He entered the ship and closed the ramp, making his way to the bridge and nodding to those he passed. He walked into the bridge and found that the twi'lek and rodian were there in chairs adjacent to the command chair.

"Systems check, make sure your station is working and report to me the condition of your station" he announced over the ship wide PA system.

"Turbo lasers operational"

"Navigation systems online"

"Point defense laser cannons are ready"

"Shields are up at 100%"

"Boarding crew is ready"

"Engines are primed and ready!"

Pleased with the results he powered up the engines and with the help of the two new crew members lifted the ship out of the port and into the atmosphere. As they were exiting the atmosphere of Mandalore he caught sight of an Imperial I Class Star Destroyer orbiting the planet, the imposing size nearly gave him pause as to whether or not to continue the mission. He shook off those doubts and entered the hyperspace coordinates and prepared for the jump. He glanced at the two occupying the auxiliary command chairs to his left and right who nodded at him, indicating that they were ready. He nodded in return and pulled the lever that activated the hyper drive, and they disappeared into the vast darkness of space.

**Sarapin**

As they exited hyperspace Tos was a bit miffed that the cargo ship and her escort weren't there. He was about to call the bothan when he was called over to the nava computer that the rodian manned. During the hyperspace jump he accessed the holonet from his helmet and downloaded a translator for any and every language known to the galaxy. He would purchase an actual translator that can attach to one's helmet at a later date since the ones you get on the holonet took a sizeable portion of your storage space in almost any device, but for now he will settle for the holonet translator.

"Sir we are getting readings that two ships are about to exit hyperspace near our position. Could it be the targets?" the rodian asked.

"It could be but it also may not. Just to be safe we are going to move our ship a fair distance away from the signatures in question" he said.

The rodian nodded and relayed the command to the crew. Tos went back to the command chair and moved the ship a few clicks away from the exit point of the hyperspace readings. Two minutes later their quarry showed up, one Strike Class cruiser and a BFF-1 bulk freighter slowly moving into hyperspace positions.

"Sir, what class is this ship" the twi'lek asked in a nervous tone.

"It is a C-70 consular class retrofit. It was used by the Old Republic during the Clone Wars. I got it at a discount because the owner thought it to be a piece of junk. I used the remaining credits I had to fix her up and now look at her. Why do you ask?" he said.

"N-no reason sir" he responded.

Tos turned to look at the freighter and its escort. It will take herculean effort and skill to not be blasted into space junk by the cruiser. It has the advantage in terms of sheer firepower and armor, but it lacks in speed and maneuverability which their ships excels in. He gave the order and their ship flew at high speed towards their target. The closer and closer they got, the more the imperials began to take notice. The cruiser began to move to intercept their ship.

"Sir, we are receiving a transmission from the imperial cruiser" the rodian said.

"Reject it" Tos said.

The transmission was terminated and they pressed on towards their target. Soon the cruiser's batteries opened fire and Tos began to weave the ship through the spread of plasma blasts which increased the closer they got to the freighter. TIE fighters began to swarm out of the cruiser, about 18 in total which formed up into attack formations and flew towards their ship. The streams of green plasma that found their mark were absorbed by the shields.

"Open fire! I want those fighters out of the way when we begin to board the freighter" Tos ordered.

"Yes sir. All laser cannons target those fighters!" the twilek ordered over the ship's PA system.

The men manning the lasers opened fire on the fighters and were soon thinning the numbers of imperial fighters. The last few TIE fighters retreated back to the cruiser who moved to attack their ship, which began to focus its fire on their ship rather than sending out a spread of plasma. Tos weaved through the streams of deadly plasma with little difficulty, narrowly missing some ion blasts while having his ship return fire. The ship's turbolasers came to life and started to pound at the Strike Class's shields but with little effect. Tos maneuvered the ship to bypass the cruiser in favor of their intended target who was slowly trying to flee the scene.

As they passed the cruiser their port side was hammered by the near unending stream of plasma blasts which resulted in their shields momentarily failing, allowing the hull to be damaged.

"Status on the port side" Tos asked.

"Mild damage to the hull on the port side sir, the shields are now at 50% and climbing" the rodian said.

"Now that we have passed the cruiser I need the boarding team to get ready. I will be joining them so I am leaving you in charge of this vessel while I am aboard the freighter. Keep this ship functioning and flying when I comm for extraction." Tos said while grabbing his blasters.

The rodian nodded and took the command chair and sped towards the freighter, blasting one of the two engines to slow it down. Tos made his way to one of the docking bays where the boarding team was assembled. About four men in total would be capturing the freighter, all armed with an assorted array of weaponry. Some carried imperial model E-11 blaster rifles whilst others carried corellian blasters. He pulled out his DC-15a blaster rifle and got ready to board.

"Sir, docking procedure under way. Good luck sir." the rodian said.

Tos grunted into the comms and cut the connection when he heard the sequence beginning. The men tensed in preparation of the fight to come, arming their blasters and pointing them at the door. Tos pointed his own blaster at the door when he heard the final sequences of the docking procedure. The door opened to reveal a hospital white corridor and floor. In the middle of the hallway stood about five stormtroopers awaiting for their arrival who pointed their blasters and fired, releasing a torrent of red plasma fire down the corridor to their position. One of the boarding party went down and Tos fired his blaster, the blue plasma bolt hitting a stormtrooper and laying him out on the corridor floor. Both sides opened fire and the corridor quickly turned into a scorched battlefield.

Tos fired a few shots and hit two stormtroopers, leaving two left to stand in their way. He rushed up the corridor towards their position with the boarding party laying down cover fire, pinning the stormtroopers. He hit a stormtrooper's helmet with the stock of his rifle and quickly ducked under a shot fired by the other stormtrooper, which hit his comrade. He turned and fired into the midsection of the trooper, blasting him into the corridor wall, slumping down with no further movement.

"Men secure the rest of the ship. I'm heading towards the bridge to take out the commander of this vessel. Once you cleared the ship I need you to secure the cargo and make them ready for transport." he said.

The men acknowledged his orders and went off to secure the ship. Tos ordered their ship to depart and to keep away from the cruiser and await further orders. The docking platform retracted into the consular class and the ship sped off to escape its pursuer. He jogged towards the bridge meeting a few stormtroopers on the way. With a few well placed shots from his blaster he cleared his path towards the bridge. He saw an elevator up ahead and walked towards it, pressing the button that called the elevator to his floor.

As he was waiting for the elevator to arrive he heard the tell tale sounds of armored feet and turned around, finding four stormtroopers marching towards him seemingly not seeing him. He pulled up his blaster and shot a furious burst of plasma bolts in their direction, downing about three of the four troopers headed his way. The remaining one opened fire on his position, with him returning fire.

Tos fired ten shots each at the stormtrooper's positions to act as suppressing fire making the trooper hunker down behind its cover. He heard the elevator's distinctive sound and moved from cover while keeping the stormtrooper behind its cover with rapid bursts from his blaster. The elevator door opened and he rushed in and pressed the button dodging the red plasma blasts fired by the stormtrooper. The door closed just as the trooper was close enough to hit him accurately and he relaxed. As he waited for the elevator to reach its destination he checked is plasma charge count and made sure he packed extra power magazines and tibanna gas cartridges in the utility belt that wrapped around the waist of his armor. Certain that he would last about seven more firefights he returned his attention to the elevator as is neared its destination. The door opened revealing several imperial crew members at their station, tracking his ship as it outran the slow cruiser. Two stormtroopers were the only military personnel armed in the room, and they needed to be taken out. He quickly raised his blaster and shot the two stormtroopers in the helmet causing them to crumple to the floor. He rapidly relieved the ship of the crew on the bridge, shooting the commander as he made his way to the cargo terminal which projected an image of his men dragging numerous imperial corpses towards the walls of the cargo bay.

'They secured the cargo, I'll contact the ship and let it know to rendezvous with the boarding party in the cargo bay on my signal' he thought as he sprinted towards the cargo bay.

As he made his way to the cargo bay he ran into a few imperial patrols but slipped past them. Once he entered the cargo bay he ordered his men to move the target crates into position.

"Move those crates! The ship has a small enough window as it is, she doesn't need a smaller one with the time delay. If the ship is destroyed then there goes our ride home!" he shouted.

The men moved at a faster pace, quickly moving the carts into position. They were just finished when red blaster fire streamed over their heads, making them duck behind cover as stormtroopers flooded into the cargo bay. Tos raised his blaster and fired, taking down about four stormtroopers before he was forced to take cover. When he was firing he counted about thirteen stormtroopers were left after he killed four of them.

'Thirteen against four, sounds like even odds to me'

The three members of the boarding party were returning fire and holding back the tide of imperials, killing about four before the imperials got into proper firing range. They opened fire with a wave of red plasma taking down another member of the boarding party. Tos rose up from his cover and fired off five round bursts from his blaster, suppressing the imperials as well as killing a fair number of them. About five stormtroopers were left standing when the cargo bay doors opened and the consular class hovered near the ship, using its tractor beam to pull the cargo from the ship into its own cargo bay. Tos and the rest of the boarding party hopped aboard a few of the crates being pulled to the ship, activating their vacuum sealed armor before they left the safety of the freighter.

"Once we are safely aboard the ship, destroy the freighter" Tos said into his comm unit.

"Acknowledged captain. Prepping turbolaser batteries now" the twi'lek said.

Tos watched from the ray shielded cargo bay as their ship opened fire on the freighter, taking a small amount of delight watching it explode from the plasma blasts. Soon the ship was dead in space, aflame and inert, and the ship flew away from the carnage as the Striker cruiser finally caught up to it, sending volleys of green plasma their way. Tos piloted the ship towards a suitable spot for a hyperspace jump and input the coordinates. He lost two men during the daring raid against the imperials. But their deaths weren't in vain since they got the cargo.

Speaking of which, he put the ship on autopilot and made his way to the cargo bay, intent on finding out what are these 'valuable' goods the bothan was so keen on getting. Ten crates in total were gathered in the bay, and so far they were spices. Seven out of ten crates were what the bothan said they were, but the final three he wasn't too sure about. He pried them open and was stunned momentarily at what he saw. Entire sets of clone trooper armor and clone blasters were sent to Mandalore to the illustrious "Lord Pharren" of clan Skirata. The skirata clan were not to be trifled with unless you had a death wish. But the bothan need not know that his 'valuable goods' were in his possession, he would simply state that the other crates were destroyed by the imperials.

He chuckled at his luck and closed the crates, moving the last three to a hidden portion of his ship. He would be keeping them for personal use, but the spices the bothan could keep. He felt the near undetectable lurch of the ship exiting hyperspace. They must have reached Mandalore. He returned to the bridge to find the planet in his sights. Tos guided his ship into port and was pleased to see the bothan awaiting his arrival with two thugs by his side. As the ship landed he lowered the ramp and had the crew unload the crates onto the platform. As his crew pushed and shoved the crates out of the ship he made his way to the bothan, who had a pleased smile on his face.

"Well, it seems I was right to trust you. You did well mandalorian, the credits are in those two chests over there. Five million credits as promised." the bothan said.

Tos nodded and had his men move the chests into the ship. As he was headed towards his ship a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder and was turned towards the accusing eyes of the bothan.

"Where are the others. I specifically asked for ten crates in total yet I only see seven of them."

"Sorry boss, the imperials blew the last of the crates in an effort to deny us of anything valuable." Tos said apologetically.

The bothan searched his eyes for the slightest hint of treachery. Luckily Tos was all too familiar with this tactic and had perfected his poker face, revealing nothing to the other. Seemingly satisfied with what he found the bothan let his shoulder go and ordered his body guards to start moving the crates to his warehouse. Tos climbed aboard his ship and told the crew they would be staying here for the night. They dispersed to their bunks, and Tos went to the captain's quarters. The bed was moderately comfy, a little stiff from lack of use but he has slept on worse. He closed his eyes and began to dream, dream of a galaxy united under one man, Mand'alor.


	3. Blip on the Radar

Tos was awoken from his slumber by incessant banging against his door. He groaned and made to get up, but promptly fell over the side of his bed, realizing he wasn't fully awake yet. Grumpily pulling himself to his feet he shuffled to the door, preparing to give an earful to the _di'kut_ who thought it was a good idea to wake him up at this hour. It was four in the morning! When he opened the door, he discovered it to be one of the human mercs he hired. He didn't bother to learn all their names, it would attach emotion to the person, and if they were to be killed it would caused unnecessary grief.

"Sir, there's someone outside the ship asking for you," the merc said.

He grunted in affirmation and closed the door, getting the pieces of his armor from their stand near the refresher. Some may just toss their armor on the floor and call it a night, but gods be damned if he did that to his own armor, he respected his belongings, otherwise his father would rise from the grave and kick his ass for not doing so. After sliding on the last armor piece he walked to the loading ramp that was being lowered, noticing the iconic symbol of the Rebellion on the shoulder pads of the body guards that surrounded the person in question. She was of a senatorial class, judging by the flowing robes and how she holds herself with grace and dignity. Fiery red hair adorned her head, cut short, barely reaching her ears. Her light skin also was a clue to her station, as it was common amongst those of the upper class to have light skin. When she noticed his approach she walked towards him, two body guards following her.

"So you must be the mandalorian who raided the imperial convoy headed here. I'm impressed, not may have the gumption to directly challenge the empire and live to tell about it," she said, softly chuckling to herself.

"Where are my manners. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mon Mothma, representative of Chandrila in the imperial senate. I am currently in need of help. I need the services of a skilled bounty hunter to aid a certain group of people who I support in secret, as public association with them at the moment would mean execution".

"What's a nice, lovely senator doing down here, in the slums of the galaxy?" he asks in a mocking tone. The senators preach and preach about the equality they strive for, the kind of equality that would affect the masses in one, all consuming movement. Yet there were still slums, still inequality amongst the masses, even though they promised to abolish it, proving to the masses that politicians were nothing but lies; liars who want the masses' vote so that they can live opulent lives.

"I assure you bounty hunter, I am no stranger to hostile places such as this, in fact I make a point to visit them, to ensure that the people who vote for me know that I understand what they go through. But enough with politics, I have a contract that may interest you," she said

"What kind of contract are we talking here senator?" he asked.

"It's a simple relief mission. Move supplies from one planet to another, with the threat of imperial incarceration I am having a tough time finding willing captains. I currently have two pilots willing to do the job, I just need one more. Perhaps you are that third pilot?"

Tos raised an eyebrow. This senator coming to him specifically was suspicious enough, but now she's asking him to go on a relief mission for her rebel friends just a week after his raid on the imperial convoy. This was no coincidence. Tos already had a list of who he might suspect to have tipped her off, but he brushes those thoughts to the back of his mind. Revenge can come later.

"Why come to me specifically. I am sure there are more qualified bounty hunters and smugglers willing to take your contract".

"They don't have the will to face the empire, unlike you. If you aren't willing to take the contract based on your hatred of the empire, maybe credits will change your mind," she said, beckoning to one of her body guards to bring a holo pad to her.

As she typed on the pad, he noticed a few imperial patrols, which put him on high alert. Imperials never come this way, deeming it a rat's nest that they couldn't waste their time on. But the fact that they are here gives a clear warning sign, someone or something important to the empire was here. He subtly glanced towards the senator, already confirming his suspicion of her. No good politician such as herself would come down here unless they need some low life to do their dirty work. He frowned internally at calling himself a low life, but oh well. As she was typing the imperials spotted her, and attempted to subtly make their way over to her without being spotted. These imperials weren't the iconic stormtrooper usually associated with the might of the imperial army, they were regular solders, wearing a gray uniform, with a black helmet and goggles that covered their eyes. Black gloves covered their hands, as well as black boots that sometimes made a squeaking sound when walking on certain types of floors. There were six in total, three on the left and three on the right. They carried the standard E-11 blaster rifle, something that is associated with the empire.

The body guards took notice as well, slowly moving towards her and raising their blasters slightly, setting the blaster to kill instead of stun. She either took notice of the tense atmosphere around her or was unnaturally fast at typing as she finished on the holo pad, and handed it to him with a look in her eyes. The look would stay with him for the rest of his natural life. It was piercing first and foremost, almost making him want to look away. At the same time it was pleading, hoping that he would aid a cause she labels as just, and their intentions true. Tos never really cared for the morals surrounding either cause, be it patriotism for the imperials, or rebellion for freedom for the rebels. All he cared about is how much might I make if I do contracts for either side, and which is more profitable.

When he read the typed message, and all that it entailed including the amount of money, he stared at her with an exasperated look, sighed tiredly, and nodded. She smiled slightly, and beckoned to her guards to escort her back to her ship, which lowered imperial suspicion. The patrols looked upon his ship with disdain and left the dirty section of the port. He glanced at the holo pad once again, then entered the ship. He called his crew to the cargo bay and explained the contract that they were to undertake. It was a relief mission. Am Imperial fleet is blockading the planet of Kashyyyk in order to starve the population into submission. All they are required to do is bypass the blockade, and land at the coordinates on the planet's surface. They will be paid twenty thousand credits to complete the mission. Each. With the promise of easy money, they readily agreed and prepared the ship for their new mission.

As the preparations were being made, he pondered at the state of his armor. Some parts of the armor were close to breaking, and won't protect him from blaster fire, and others really served no other purpose other than to look stylish. He decided to try out the armor sets he took from the imperials. He made his way to the cargo bay and opened a crate, pulling out a particular set of armor. From the holo logs he read up about the clone wars, this set was usually seen being worn by a advanced recon commando, or ARC trooper for short. It had a pauldron on the left shoulder, as well as a kama around the utility belt, acting like a kilt in a sense. It was phase I armor, with the range finder on the helmet, which was colored blue. In fact, the armor had blue stripes on the chest, arm, and leg plates, the hand plates being entirely blue. He carried the pieces of armor to his quarters, making a few trips with the sheer amount of armor plates the set had, about twenty in total.

"I hope this fits, or I will get into a crap storm of trouble for nothing," he said to himself, trying on the plastoid armor pieces.

Turns out he wasn't too big or too small, it was a near perfect fit, except for the stiff plastoid plate and tightness in the crotch and chest area. He grunted in effort as he slid on the last armor plate, he would have to make a trip to Kamino to have the set upgraded to better suit his needs. But the armor itself is valuable, being able to take a direct blaster shot to the chest and getting back up to fight is a incredible feat, let alone the armor's ability for short excursions into the vacuum of space if need be. Not to mention that the helmet's HUD could link up to the user's blaster, giving it a holographic reticule to aid in accuracy. Granted the phase II armor was more comfortable, but it lacked an internal life support system, requiring an external respirator that could block out noxious fumes and poisonous gasses for a short period of time. He decided that he would mix the attributes of the two armor sets, combining the flexibility and comfort of phase II, while having all the systems and reliability of phase I.

He slid on his helmet and headed towards the bridge, garnering a few queer looks from his crew as he passed. They most likely have never seen a clone trooper, the breed of soldier practically gone from the imperial military due to their rapid aging, which was needed to fulfill the contract the Kaminoans accepted from Syfo Dyas so long ago. He would never publicly admit this but he was a history nerd, always looking to advance his knowledge of anything related to the ancient governments. During his early years as a bounty hunter, he relished in the opportunity of accepting contracts to acquire historical texts and holocrons from the ruins of the _Jetii_ temple, which was sacked by Darth Vader. He even acquired a _jetii'kad_ pike that was left behind after the imperials left the smoking husk of a building. He still has it, its hidden in a secret compartment in his quarters. Tos never tried to use it or activate it, not wanting to be mistaken for a Jedi.

"Glii Va, has the port side been repaired?"

"Yes sir, repairs have been made to the port side hull, returning it to 100%. The turbo lasers and point defense lasers have been recharged and the shields are also recharged sir," Glii Va said.

Tos nodded and input the coordinates on the holo pad, which placed their destination to Bespin, the city amongst the clouds. It was currently be ran by Lando Calrissian, a human from the planet of Socorro, who was infamous for working with and sometimes aiding legendary smuggler Han Solo, who flew the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, creating a new record that few to none could hope to beat. The contract details stated that they were to pick up a few metric tons of supplies, meet up at coordinates that will be uploaded to the tablet once the supplies are picked up, and try and breach the imperial blockade surrounding Kashyyyk. Granted that there were over five Imperial Star Destroyers blockading the planet, but what the heck, it was twenty thousand credits just for a milk run.

Tos activated the ship's systems and lifted the vessel off of the platform and into the atmosphere, flying past imperial dreadnoughts and interdictors, and finally leaving the planet. He powered up the hyper drive and pulled the lever, the ship disappearing in a flash of light. As the hues of blue and purple raced passed the view port, Tos took the time to customize the armor's systems to better match his fighting style, which wasn't too different from the republic clone's in his lifetime. He increased the max range in his holographic reticule and made sure that the helmet would link up to his blaster. Once this was done he cleaned his blasters, removing the residue of plasma from the barrel of the weapon. This was drilled into him from the days he could hold a blaster, to always make sure your weapon was fully operational, and won't malfunction during a fire fight.

Once his inspection was complete, he sat at the captain's chair and awaited their exit from hyper space. The ship was silent for a few minutes, save for the clicking of keys being pressed and the noises of the ship. The ship beeped a warning, signaling their imminent exit from hyper space. He took the ship's controls just as the ship exited hyper space, near the gas giant of Bespin. The world was a ruddy orange, thanks to the large wells of tibanna gas surrounding the metallic core. As they moved closer to the planet, Tos sighted a single Star Destroyer orbiting the planet, its mere presence displays the power and reach of the empire. He flew past the massive war ship, changing course to avoid a huge freighter that was unfortunate to be stopped by a Strike Class cruiser for a surprise inspection. Tos flew to the platforms that he assumed were landing platforms, judging by the amount of ships docked on one of them. He landed the vessel without trouble and lowered the ramp, two mercs accompanying him towards the main structure.

The city was as active as a tibanna gas refinery can get, with sparse crowds of people wandering the facility, most conversations consisting of tibanna prices, and how shipping them would incur a tax by the empire. He was soon greeted by none other than the owner of the refinery, Lando Calrissian.

"Well well, looks like Mothma got her third pilot after all, come this way, your supplies are in the building up ahead," he said, two security guards at his side.

Tos nodded and followed the gambler, his two mercs following him across the platform. As they drew closer to the facility, the more stares by imperials they gathered. Luckily they entered the building before he decided to change his mind, and followed the former smuggler down the corridors, his appearance garnering more than the occasional befuddled stare. They soon reached the room in which he assumed where the supplies were stored. He was proven right as twenty crates of emergency food, water, and fruits that he noticed were native to Kashyyyk.

"Now, here's the fun part," he said with a cynical smile.

"Great, can't wait"

"My part of this mission is over, I'm through. But you on the other hand, you have the fun part. You have to smuggle these crates beyond the Star Destroyer currently in Bespin's atmosphere, and I have gotten numerous reports of surprise inspections, totally random, no pattern to manipulate"

Tos groaned. This mission was becoming more and more fun by the second. Not only did he have to bypass an imperial blockade at Kashyyyk, he has to sneak these crates by a Star Destroyer which makes surprise inspections whenever it pleases, and has state of the art scanning equipment, at least he assumes it state of the art.

"So what's the upside to this. In every holo soap opera, whenever a protagonist meets insurmountable odds they are always given a small, sliver of a chance to succeed," he asked, raising an eyebrow when Lando began to laugh.

"Oh man, you are too funny. There is no upside to this, I'm just here to give you a heads up. Wish you luck mandalorian. You'll need it," he said, going into a fit of laughter just a few feet down the corridor.

'That man is so lucky he is invaluable, otherwise my hands would be squeezing the life out of him at this moment' he thought fuming.

Tos sighed, and ordered his mercs to help with loading the crates onto the ship, which took them about an hour to complete. Once the crates were aboard his ship he raised the ramp, just in time to hide the 'contraband' from an imperial patrol. He activated the ship's systems and flew away from the platform, breaching the planet's atmosphere and going into space, the imposing form of the Star Destroyer at the forefront of his thoughts. He began to ponder how to escape, when there was a commotion near the warship. A freighter began to fire at the Striker Class cruiser, temporarily disabling it with ion blasts, and made a run for it, its slow speed made catching it an easy task when the Destroyer began to give chase. This was his moment, and he did not waste it, gunning the ship at full throttle towards the hyper space jump location, He quickly input Kashyyyk's hyper space coordinates and pulled the lever, the vessel blasting off towards the planet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> di'kut - idiot  
> jetii'kad - Lightsaber (Literal: Jedi's Sabre)  
> jetii - Jedi


	4. The First Domino

Once they reached the rendezvous point, he saw that there were two other ships in the vicinity. A Corellian blockade runner, and trandoshian assault craft, with a few heads of various species mounted on the frontal hull, with multiple small laser cannons mounted on the hull. He assumed that the two other candidates owned more, smuggler esque ships instead of what he saw, though he figured there would be a corellian blockade runner when Mothma offered the mission. When he moved into position he received a transmission from one of the ships.

"The third pilot finally arrives, where've you been slick, we've been waiting on you," the captain of the blockade runner said.

"Ran into a little trouble on the way here. This the rallying point for Mothma's relief mission?" he asked.

"This is where we leave to our inevitable doom stranger. I'd advise you turn back, don't need weak hearted fools botching this contract, it will destroy my perfect record," the owner of the assault ship said.

"Can it Gresham, we have our orders. Guess this is the best time to start so I will fill you in on the current situation. The imperials have strengthened their blockade because a trigger happy band of rebels tried to break it, the rebel fleet is scrap floating in space currently. This makes our mission a whole lot harder. By the way, the name's Fargo, captain of the Gunbuster, the fastest ship in three parsecs," Fargo said.

"That loveable lizard over there is Gresham, captain of the Thrasher. He's been moaning about how this will lead to our inevitable doom, but don't mind him."

"Then let's get this party started, you guys have the planet's coordinates set?" Tos asked.

"We've had 'em inputted into our navi-computer for about three hours, of course we have 'em," Fargo said in a slightly mocking tone.

"Then let's go, don't want to breach the blockade all by myself now, so keep up"

Tos powered up the hyper drive after it's cool down was complete, and blasted off towards Kashyyyk, the two other ships close behind. When they arrived at the planet, things were looking pretty bad. About ten Star Destroyers encircled the planet, with a complement of cruisers and frigates to aid in securing the blockade. When Tos saw this, his jaw dropped in sheer astonishment. He knew the planet was blockaded, but he figured that the talk of increased defenses and warships was just talk, fear mongering amongst the rebels. He was hoping for about four or five destroyers, maybe even six, but his hopes were dashed as he witnessed the vast imperial navy. As the other two ships left hyper space, they soon stopped on the port and starboard side of his ship.

"Holy shit, that's a lot of firepower," Fargo said with a slight tremor in his voice.

"I told you! This would be the end! I am running it, better to die with glory than shame. RAHH!" Gresham shouted, his ship going full speed towards the imperial blockade.

"Wait you stupid fool, we need a plan!" Fargo shouted in vain, sighing when the craft showed no sign of stopping.

"Follow him, an opening could occur, and we can't miss it!" Tos yelled.

"Well then, I suppose I will follow as well. It's been a pleasure working with you, even if it was brief," Fargo said, his ship tailing Tos's.

The three ships sped towards the imposing war ships, the trandoshian making first contact. The assault craft opened fire in a blaze of red plasma streaming towards an Interdictor, the wave of fire overwhelming the shields and destroying the gravity well generators. Gresham then attacked a Strike Class cruiser, dealing minor damage to the ship's hull as it turned to face it's attacker. As this was occurring, a nearby Star Destroyer moved from its position to attack the assault craft, swarms of TIE fighters streaming from its hanger bays. Gresham momentarily took some damage as the Strike Class opened fire, disabling the craft's engines. The trandoshian saw the incoming wave of fighters and quickly activated the anti-air defense lasers. Small, but deadly laser cannons all over the assault craft came to life and started to decimate the fighter swarm, shooting down ship after ship. He disabled the cruiser with a couple of focused ion blasts and turned towards the destroyer slowly moving into attack position

As the last fighter was downed he fired every cannon, turret, and turbo laser on his ship at the imposing monster of a vessel, the plasma dispersing once it hit the warship's shields. Tos and Fargo managed to slip past during the confrontation, but did not escape notice as a pair of cruisers gave chase, firing of plasma rounds in short bursts. TIE fighter squadrons were launched and flew towards them, unleashing a barrage of green plasma bolts, which were slowly wearing down their shields.

"These fighters may be weak alone , but are very effective in large groups *static* If we don't take them out, then we can kiss the planet's surface goodbye my friend" Fargo said, his transmission cutting out as a bolt from one of the cruisers hit his ship.

"Glii Va, activate point defense lasers."

"Yes sir, point defense lasers activating."

The laser cannons came to life and started to down multiple enemy fighters, with Fargo's ship doing the same a few moments later. With the combined effort of both ships, they quickly cleared the area of fighters, but were reminded of the cruisers as another volley of green plasma was sent their way. Tos looked back towards Gresham's ship through the rear view port, watching in mild sadness as it was torn apart by the massive volley of the destroyer, and was a bit miffed that the crates were destroyed as well. His ship shook from a volley from one of the cruisers, and he quickly returned to the bridge.

"Sir, that last volley took out our shields, and with the fire power they are packing, one well placed volley will tear us apart!" Glii Va shouted, sweat running down his face and seeping into the cloth parts of his armor.

Tos was about to give an order when an explosion rocked their ship. He panicked, thinking that the hull was breached, but sighed when no claxons sounded off, but worriedly looked out the port side view port, cursing when he saw the blockade runner aflame.

"Damn, they hit me pretty good. My ship is nearly finished, one more volley and I will be floating in the vacuum of space my friend, so best hope that they are terrible shots from here on out," Fargo said, coughing from the smoke in the bridge.

"Just hang in there Fargo, I'll cover you. Head to the planet's surface, we'll meet you there."

Tos ordered the turbo lasers online, and to point them at one of the cruisers. The lasers turned towards their targets, and awaited the command. It was given. Blue plasma bolts flew from the barrels of the turbo lasers, slicing through space like a fish in water. The lasers pounded the first cruiser's shields, inflicting moderate damage to the hull once the shields collapsed, setting the vessel aflame. The second cruiser turned its laser batteries towards them, leaving the blockade runner to increase its speed. It opened fire with a speed nearly unmatched, almost instantaneous volleys of green plasma bolts were sent their way, making Glii Va cry out in terror. Tos banked the ship left, then right, and left again, avoiding the plasma fire, one round clipped their starboard engine, causing smoke to appear in copious amounts.

"We're hit!" the twilek shouted.

"Get those shields back online, now!" Tos shouted.

Glii Va and the twilek rapidly worked on getting the shields back online, but it took an enormous amount of time, something they don't have. As this was occurring, the blockade runner finally reached the planet's atmosphere, and stopped. An imperial frigate moved next to the ship and docked with the blockade runner. A transmission was being sent to his ship, and he put it through, showing the captain of the Gunbuster with a crooked grin, along with an imperial captain.

"Many thanks my friend. I owe you a debt of gratitude, but I won't be able to repay it 'cause the person I owe will be dead soon," Fargo said, guffawing into the transmission.

"You bastard!" Tos shouted.

"Oh don't worry, I will be sure to tell Mothma of your heroic sacrifice. Of how you died with honor and valor. After that though, my imperial friends will be taking her to the emperor, where I think that things will not go so well for the distinguished senator. It was fun working with you, but I got a bounty to collect, See ya," he said, cutting off the transmission.

Enraged, was the only verb he could use to describe the emotion he was feeling. He was deathly still at the command terminal, hands slightly shaking with barely concealed emotion. Due to his mandalorian upbringing, he was taught to honor any deal he made, be it big or small, if not then he would be forced to fend for himself until the lesson sunk in, and he spent enough time in the streets and gutters to last a lifetime. For a person to so carelessly break a contract with an employer, it was an affront to his parent's, as well as his own honor.

"Get a tracking device on that blockade runner, once we are done here, I want to pay our comrade a visit," he growled with clenched teeth, his tone promising unending pain and agony.

Glii Va nodded and went to a turbo laser terminal, instructing the merc on the task. The starboard turbo laser turned from the cruiser and aimed at the blockade runner, firing off a single shot, which hit the vessel in the engines, causing smoke and flame to fly off the ship into space.

"Tracking beacon has been set sir."

"Excellent, now order our cannons to focus all fire on the remaining cruiser to cover our entry to the planet."

Streams of blue plasma flew from the Charger's cannons, pummeling the shields of the imperial ship. Once the volley was sent, the Charger flew rapidly to the planet's surface, taking one last shot at the blockade runner, who was fleeing the system, but missed. As they flew towards the planet's surface, passing through the atmosphere he pondered on how he was going to deal with the traitorous scum that abandoned the mission.

'Castration was a favorite of my father, got the message across very quick. Although burning the coward's skin is still a possible option, but no, he would have the skin removed, and replaced with the skin off of his shebs,' he thought, chuckling slightly when he thought that.

The planet's surface was one of warfare, imposing AT-ATs were approaching a wookie stronghold, with AT-STs in support, and an army of stormtroopers rushing the beaches under the massive metal feet of the walkers. Red plasma bolts were lobbed towards the wookie battlements, the wookies answered with plasma bolts of their own, streaks of green taking out stormtroopers by the dozens. A particularly large plasma round flung from the battlements collided with an imperial AT-ST, setting the walker alight with flames, destroying the cockpit and the pilots, and bringing the metal death machine down.

"So this is what Mothma wanted me to deliver supplies to. Fan freaking tastic," he groaned.

His ship flew past the battlefield and towards the wookie's center of operations, a gigantic tree by his standards, but probably normal sized to the wookies. He landed the frigate onto a landing pad, where a company of wookies were standing, led by a rebel officer.

"Glii Va, have the men deliver the supplies to the rebels."

"Yes sir."

He donned his helmet and exited the ship to meet with the rebel officer, who had a surprised look on his face when he saw the clone trooper armor. Tos walked up to the officer and shook the offered hand.

"I didn't know Lady Mothma had a clone helping the rebellion, but we need all the help we can get. My name is Francis Dibrell, and I am the commanding officer of this army, as well as orchestrator of this rebellion," he said.

"Name's Tos, and I am not a clone trooper, and I don't think there are any left. I am not a part of this rebellion, I'm just doing this for the credits."

"Ah, a mercenary," he said, with a tone that conveyed mild disgust.

"Yea, you got a problem with that?"

"No, no problem at all. I was just hoping that Mothma had 'reliable' contacts when she told us supplies were being delivered," Francis said.

Tos was beginning to become vexed by this officer, but hid his emotions well enough that the man didn't notice his chagrin. He disliked those who despised mercenaries, simply because of the fact that they had no loyalty to a cause, only money. He internally scoffed. Being loyal to a fault will get you killed, as was the fate of so many who eagerly signed up for war.

"Can I just get my credits and go, I don't want to upset the illustrious officer more than necessary with my presence," Tos said.

A wookie with body and head ornaments nodded and pointed to a couple of chests near the landing platform. Tos ordered his men to get the chests onto the ship, urging them to hurry when a particularly big explosion shook the platform beneath their feet. Once the chests were on the ship, he waved at the wookies and wished them well with their rebellion, the wookies roaring in response. He entered the ship and closed the ramp, and made his way to the bridge, sitting in the command chair and lifting the ship off of the platform with a lurch. As he flew his ship into the planet's sky, he looked back at the battle raging on the beach, watching as the AT-AT walkers slowly advanced on the wookie and rebel positions, destroying all in their path. He kind of felt sorry for the rebels. Not because they were oppressed or anything, but because they were fighting a one sided rebellion. He decided that he would help the rebels, just this once on his own volition, free of charge.

He turned his ship around, and faced it towards the beach. He aimed the twin turbo laser cannons, about five of them, at the slow moving metal behemoths known as All Terrain Assault Transports and opened fire. His cannons tore through the first walker like it was nothing, punching holes into the thick armor of the walker, making the mechanical colossus fall over onto its side, crushing a good portion of the storm trooper legion. The ship's cannons focused fire onto the second walker, piercing the thick metal of its sides, killing any soldiers in the transport.

"Hold your fire, don't destroy the last walker completely, the rebels have to have some challenge now don't they," he said, watching the walker struggle to move its metal legs forward.

"Yes sir," the twilek said.

The cannons immediately ceased firing, and the imperials began to rush the rebel positions, seeing as they could not afford to advance under the cover of their giant transports. The intensity of the fight increased, but he didn't want to see the end of the battle, so he turned his ship towards space, and steered the ship past the planet's atmosphere, directly into the awaiting imperial blockade. He wasn't nervous with the sight of the imposing fleet, as he input the coordinates on the tracker into the nava computer, and activated the hyper drive, disappearing into deep space before the imperials could disable his ship.


	5. The Next Step

A ripple in the fabric of the force stirred the dark lord from his meditation. It was a familiar ripple, one that his former self, Anakin Skywalker, was used to feeling. He pushed his anger and hate aside and set his focus on locating the force signature. His master felt the ripple, it would be foolish to assume otherwise. Palpatine was a master of the dark side, he manipulated an entire galaxy to abandon democracy and accept with open arms the harsh rule of an empire. He felt a light presence touch the outer layers of his mental shields, and he immediately shielded his mind, lest his master delve into his inner thoughts. While he acknowledged that Palpatine was his master, that didn't mean that he liked him. In fact, he plotted continuously to usurp the throne from his master, but was continuously reminded by the fact that he was more machine than man, and that his master possessed the ability to wield force lightning. He also knew that he was disposable.

His master was always in search of someone stronger that him to take his place at his master's side. Palpatine disliked that he had to replace nearly all of his body parts, most of his internal organs, and necessary functions with mechanical parts. His master thought him weak, not as light of foot nor flexible as he was before, nor was he able to wield force lightning. He smirked. His master may think him weak in some areas, but he forgets the whole picture. While he prattles on about diplomacy and subterfuge to keep rebellious systems in line, through assassinations, strong-arming, and increased taxes on rebellious systems, he , on the other hand, preferred to deal with insurrections and rebellions with extreme efficiency, launching precise strikes against suspected rebel strongholds, and catching their fleet on the move, tightening the noose on their maneuverability and ability to aid their rebel friends. He was close to finding the signature now, it was near the Kashyyyk system not a few moments ago. It's headed towards the Hypori system.

He remembers that abomination of a cyborg, General Grievous, and how the Republic forces there suffered a catastrophic defeat there at the hands of the separatist general.

He shoved all memories of the general and anything included into the depths of his mind. He was supposed to rid himself of all traces of Anakin Skywalker, yet continues to remember details of his old life. It would displease his master if he knew the last vestiges of Anakin Skywalker still lived inside Vader. He resumed his task, and studied the force signature. It wasn't strong enough to be a jedi, but it wasn't weak enough to be regarded as nothing. It was neither dark nor light, stuck somewhere in the middle, a gray area. He wanted to see the being who held such a signature, but other matters needed attention. He rose from his meditative position and entered the bridge.

"Admiral Piett, prepare for planetary assault, I want this planet firmly under Imperial control. Plan a course to Hypori when the rebellion is quelled," he ordered. This little hideout of the Rebellion's was beginning to annoy him. It proved to be more of an annoyance than his intelligence had reported to him. They would come to regret their grave error. However, it couldn't be helped. The rebels would soon meet their end. He would assure their transition to the afterlife.

"Yes Lord Vader," the admiral responded

"Prepare my shuttle as well, I will personally see to the extermination of these rebels," he said after a moment's pause.

"Yes Lord Vader," Admiral Piett said.

Darth Vader made his way to the hangar bays and entered his shuttle, which took off after the large drop ships that carried AT-ATs down to the doomed planet below.

**Hyperspace**

Tos looked upon the nava computer with expectation. Since his escape from Kashyyyk, he has been following Fargo's ship in order to take revenge for the smuggler's betrayal. He turned towards Glii Va. The rodian was checking the ship's internal systems, and assigning a repair crew to each damaged system when he found it.

"Glii Va, what do you think about going after the smuggler?"

The Rodian turned to look at him

"Come again sir?" he asked

"What are your thoughts about us going after the smuggler who betrayed us on Kashyyyk?"

"Well sir, I think that this is your ship, and we are your crew, and that you can go about this as you see fit. "

"Thank you for your thoughts. How far are we from Hypori?"

"3 parsecs if I am reading this correctly, we will arrive in exactly one hour"

Tos nodded and turned back to the hues of blue and purple racing by.

**Hypori**

The ship exited hyperspace, flying towards the mountainous planet. Tos checked the tracking beacon and saw that the blockade runner landed on the far side of the planet's surface. Tos ordered that the ship land near the target and left the bridge to prepare. He calibrated all of his armor's internal systems, and prepped his blasters. As he was making final preparations for his mission, he had the sudden urge to get something. He didn't know what, but he knew that he would eventually find out if he looked around long enough. Soon enough, he came to the place where the lightsaber pike was hidden. This was odd. He didn't know why he felt the need to take it, but the feeling wouldn't go away unless he did, and he didn't want anything hindering his success, so he grabbed the lightsaber pike and attached it to his belt.

"Glii Va, I need you to move the ship into orbit after I leave and perform a planetary scan for life forms, highest setting," he spoke into his wrist comm.

"Yes sir. I will report anything that comes up on the scanner. Good hunting."

"Thanks."

He made his way to the docking ramp and exited the ship, which lifted off as soon as he did, and began to make his way to the tracking beacon's location. The sand beneath his feet was soft, giving way to his armored feet. The winds were powerful, blowing any loose sand, creating a thin layer of sediments in the air. His internal life support kept his lungs free of the deadly sand, but it was wearing at the armor's color, the ocean blue being worn off by the millions of sand particles flying through the air. As he was walking, he took note of the corpses of large ships that dotted the landscape.

The majority were severely damaged, large holes in the hull were proof of the ship's violent destruction. He had read about this particular battle in the jedi archives, or what was left of them. This battle was where the infamous droid commander General Grievous made his appearance, killing three jedi and injuring three more, whilst having destroyed the Republic invasion force with orbital mines. He spotted a ship that seemed very much intact, with only minor damage being dealt to the hull. It wouldn't hurt to take a look, but he had more pressing matters to attend to. He looked at his wrist holoprojecter and saw that the beacon was just up ahead, behind two sand dunes.

"Sir, planetary scan complete," Glii Va spoke from the wrist comm.

"Find anything?"

"Yes sir, twenty three life forms are currently on planet, including yourself. Transmitting their coordinates to your HUD now."

"Good, land at my current location when I give the order," Tos said.

"Yes sir."

As the comm went silent, Tos began to slowly climb the dunes, and activated his range finder when he reached the crest. He crouched down and found an interesting sight. The blockade runner was landed on a flat portion of rock, a couple feet away sat an Imperial Lambda class shuttle, with a few stormtroopers patrolling the area. Near the two vessels stood an imperial officer, a low ranking one based on his uniform, and his target, garbed in imperial armor. Fargo stood around five feet and two inches, wore a gray imperial cuirass, with a double-breasted olive gray tunic underneath, gray trousers, black boots with durasteel tips and gloves, adorned with a battle dress helmet coupled with black goggles. His skin was of a dirt brown tone, with a small goatee covering his square chin. On the outskirts of his hair line, gray streaks intertwined with sandy blond hair.

Standing beside the low ranked imperial officer were two stormtroopers. He counted sixteen stormtroopers surrounding the area, and another four guarding Fargo and the imperial officer.

'I don't want to start a confrontation which I cannot win, but I don't want to leave here empty-handed,' he thought, pondering how he will go about this.

Then, he saw it. As he was pondering how he would kill the smuggler, he was studying the patrol patterns of the stormtroopers, checking for inconsistencies and windows between patrols. He noticed that there was a ten second window between two stormtroopers near the engines of each ship. He got it. He will sabotage the engines of each ship to keep his targets where they are, and slowly pick off the stormtroopers until there are little to none left, and then, he will move in for the kill. Tos moved from his position on the crest of the sand dune, and went around the surrounding dunes, crouched so as to not draw the attention of the stormtroopers. As he was going around a smaller dune, a stormtrooper walked to the crest of the dune, right above Tos's head. Tos froze, not even breathing so as to reduce his chances of getting caught. He lay still for what seemed like hours, wanting the stormtrooper to leave. The stormtrooper stood there, looking left and right, searching for anything out of place, then began to move forward. Tos decided to eliminate the threat and grabbed the armored leg and pulled the trooper down the sand dune.

Tos jumped onto the stormtrooper and roped his arm around the neck of the trooper and began to squeeze. The stormtrooper struggled to break free of the deadly hold, elbowing Tos's midsection and pounding on his arm, his feet flailing about, tossing sand every which way. Slowly, the struggles began to weaken, the blows to his midsection and arms not as strong as before, the flailing feet not as energetic. Tos didn't want to have this trooper to wake up later and cause him trouble, and sharply twisted the helmet, hearing a cracking sound and feeling the body go limp. Tos moved the body to a spot hidden from the eyes of the imperials and continued on his mission.

As he neared the blockade runner, he saw the stormtrooper patrol go by and knew that this was his window and rushed towards the ship. He hid behind the engines as two stormtroopers walked past and made his way to the docking ramp, rushing inside the ship. Tos hid in the corridor as two soldiers were headed to the docking ramp. As they exited the ship he sprinted towards the bridge, dodging crew members and soldiers as he went. He knew that the missing stormtrooper would eventually draw attention, and that he had to be quick, but he also wanted to be thorough with his work, he didn't fancy his work backfiring or malfunctioning when it is called upon, it has happened to him on a few contracts before and it nearly cost him his life.

Tos reached the bridge, silently killing the lone flight officer manning the ship, and set to crippling the blockade runner. He would have to bypass the system's fail safe if this was going to work, and that would take time. Time that was quickly running out. He got past the fail safe after a few minutes and started to prime the engines to explode, rerouting auxiliary power and setting a countdown timer, which he synced to his HUD.

"Boss, we have a problem."

"Go ahead Glii Va," Tos said

"I've picked up a single massive star destroyer headed this way, and its moving fast!" the rodian reported in a distressed tone.

"Ok, I'll finish up my work here and meet you a ways away, won't take me long."

"I hope so, Glii Va out."

As he ended the comm signal and finished sabotaging the blockade runner, he made his escape, running to the sand dunes and taking cover behind the immense mounds of loose dirt. Once he made sure that the ship was set to blow and was linked to his helmet, he set the timer to about ten seconds, and he bolted for another sand dune, distancing himself from the ticking time bomb that was Fargo's ship, narrowly missing a stormtrooper patrol. He reached the distance he thought was safe, with two seconds to spare, and watched as the ship went up in smoke and fire, flinging nearby stormtroopers into the sand dunes, turning the nearby sand into blackened glass.

He pulled out his DC-15a blaster rifle and began picking off the disoriented and confused stormtroopers, their disorganization making them easy targets. One by one the stormtroopers fell to his keen aim, which only added to the confusion, creating the seed of fear which planted itself into their hearts. Fargo and the imperial officer took cover behind the shuttle, the officer barking orders to his subordinates while Fargo quickly scanned his surroundings.

'Time for you to pay for your transgression,' Tos thought darkly, getting up from his position atop a sand dune and rushing towards the shuttle, taking down what few stormtroopers were left. As he neared the fire engulfed remains of Fargo's ship, he shot the imperial officer, leaving Fargo to stare at him in utter shock and fear. He smirked at the terrified expression of Fargo's face, impatiently wanting to torture the man right then and there, but he reigned his impulses and began to slowly advance towards his target, the smuggler taking a step back for every step he took.

"I figured you for an imperial sympathizer, but to actually wear their ugly uniforms. It's a new low Fargo. Now prepare yourself, for you are about to pay for your heinous transgression against me, and I am not merciful towards those who break their word," he said as he put his blaster rifle on his back.

Fargo screamed, as he recognized the voice behind the helmet, and made a dash in the opposite direction, tripping over a blackened piece of his ship, landing face first in the sand. As the man coughed out the sand that got into his mouth Tos grabbed the man by the helmet, pulling it off and grabbing a fistful of the man's sandy blond hair, and smashed his fist into Fargo's face, sending a torrent of blood onto the sand as his fist shattered the man's nose. He flung punch after punch at the smuggler's face coating his fist in his blood which dripped to the sandy ground. As he prepared to throw another punch, a feeling of dread and pure fear slowly began to creep into his psyche, and he stopped. He looked towards the sky and saw a massive star destroyer.

"Looks like you won't be getting your revenge after all mercenary," Fargo said as he chuckled, spurts of blood flowing from his nose onto the sand.

"Looks like it," Tos said as he pulled out his blaster carbine and shot the smuggler, pulling up his comm. "Jovani, I think I might need that pickup right about now," he said, smiling slightly when he heard a relieved sigh from the other end.

"I was wondering when you would call, heading to your location now, ETA 2 minutes, Jovani out."

As he waited for the cruiser to pick him up he spotted the officer's body and began to search it for anything useful. He found some imperial access codes, which will come in handy, and he found information regarding a nearby planet, a report for a higher officer if the way the report was written was of any indication. As he read the report, a smirk grew onto his face, turning into a full on grin the more he read. He heard the sound of a ship landing and he tucked the access codes and the report into his utility belt and turned, his smirk quickly turning to a look of fear as he saw that it wasn't his cruiser that landed, but another Imperial Lambda class shuttle, the cold dark feeling growing by the second.

He hoped that what was on that shuttle wasn't what he thought it was. However, his terror mounted when the doors hissed open and disgorged its passengers. Two elite stormtroopers, whom carried a different variant of the regular stormtrooper armor with thicker plating, stepped out of the shuttle with synchronized steps, never faltering for even a second as they stood on either side of the shuttle ramp. The cold, dark feeling was near overwhelming now, and grew as the sith took a few steps his way. He stood his ground, though his mind practically screamed at him to flee, to get away from this horror inducing being, his pride kept him in place.

As Tos stared into the dark and foreboding mask of Darth Vader, studying the man before him, he himself was being studied. Darth Vader hadn't expected what he had found. He thought that he would find a semi adept force user, a practitioner of the light he vowed to extinguish to his last breath. What he found instead, was a mercenary garbed in clone armor who had murdered a smuggler. It wasn't the oddest thing he had found, though it ranked up in the top ten, and when he subtly probed his mind, he found quite a few interesting things. 

"Interesting indeed," the deep, chilling voice of Darth Vader said.


	6. Upgrades

"Remind me why we are guarding this arms dealer again?" Glii Va asked, holstering his blaster pistol and crossing his arms over his chest.

After the terrifying experience with the sith lord, who had just left after doing...whatever he was doing, Tos had received a contract from a member of the Hutt clan. The Hutt in question is expecting a large shipment of weapons from one of his favorite arms dealers. He was a minor hutt, a member of one of the five Hutt Families, being under Jabba's sphere of influence.

Recently however, Imperial security has locked down on the hyperlanes and have increased the number of patrols on the Outer Rim planets it has influence over. It just so happens that the arms dealer runs his operation on one of these planets, Kwenn, right on the edge of Hutt Space. Currently, the arms dealer was loading the cargo intended to the Hutt onto one of his transports, a Davro-class light freighter. They needed to guard him and his shipment from Imperials and rival gangs in the area, until the dealer can leave the system. It didn't help that the building they were standing in front of was quite conspicuous, especially since it was in the middle of a street, and was quite large.

"Because Glii Va, we were promised 30,000 credits each if we do this. Besides, its an easy job for some quick credits. Plus, we're gonna be getting a new ship," Tos said, shifting his blaster rifle in his arms. They haven't had any trouble yet, which was good, made things easier. He needed to head to Kamino to make the adjustments to the armor he wore, and along the way, he was going to get a new ship. The ship they had now, he was fond of. But the recent contracts have shown that while it was fast, it didn't have the shields or the firepower to match Imperial ships. He could attempt to get better shielding and higher yield turbolasers, but in his mind it would cost the same as getting a new ship with all the newer systems already in it.

Glii Va looked at him with a befuddled look. Although he knew Tos for only a couple months now since his recruitment, he knew enough about the Mandalorian to know that he valued his ship greatly. The twilek at one time had suggested to get a better, bigger ship, but was quickly shot down by Tos. Now, he seems to have switched his opinion on the topic completely.

"May I ask why we are getting a new ship? I seem to recall you fervently shutting down any discussion about getting a different ship, so what's changed?"

Tos turned to answer, but multiple footsteps drew his attention. He pulled up his blaster rifle, Glii Va and two other mercenaries doing the same with their weapons, just as the footsteps rounded the street corner they were on. Ten weequay pirates were rushing their position, blasters raised.

"Kill them and take the weapons!" the leader of the group shouted, a barrage of red plasma bolts soon followed, forcing Tos and his men to take cover on the right side of the building.

Tos returned fire, firing off three shots and killing one pirate before he was forced back into cover by the rest of the pirates. Glii Va, with his Corellian blaster pistol, peeked out of cover and quickly fired off two shots, killing another pirate before moving back behind cover. Tos leaned forward to fire at the pirates, but as soon as he poked his head out from behind the wall, he saw a blaster bolt headed straight for his head, as if it was in slow motion. At the last second, before the plasma bolt made contact with his helmet, he jerked his head back, watching the bolt strike against the wall. He stared at the scorch mark on the wall in wonder. A sudden push brought his attention to Glii Va.

"Sir, get your head back in the fight. It's no time to stare at the wall" he said, shortly firing two shots at the pirates.

Tos shook his head, pushing the event to the back of his mind and raised his blaster rifle to lay down suppressing fire, making the pirates duck behind makeshift cover due to the barrage.

"Glii Va, flank them, take them down!" Tos ordered as he fired in rapid succession.

Glii Va nodded and motioned for the two mercenaries to follow him, and together they raced out from the wall and onto the other side of the street. They moved towards the pirate's makeshift cover, and once they got withing a certain distance, Glii Va withdrew a thermal detonator and hurled it at the pirates. Two shrieks were soon followed by the thump of bodies as two pirates raced out of cover, only to be gunned down by Tos. The rest of the pirates met their end at the detonator's explosion.

Glii Va and the two mercenaries walked back to where Tos was, looking up into the sky as the freighter sped off into the atmosphere.

"Gentlemen, our job here is done. Head back to the ship, I'll meet you there," Tos said.

Glii Va nodded and began to walk back to the ship, the two mercenaries in tow. Tos turned and activated his holo projector, speaking to the disgusting Hutt and working out the finer details of payment. As this was occuring, his mind persistently remained on the event from earlier. He should have been hit, it was too close. Anyone else would have been dropped by the blaster bolt, but somehow he dodged it, which shouldn't have happened.

He resolved to figure it out later. Right now, there was a ship with his name on it, just waiting for him.

**Kuat Drive Yards**

His ship landed on one of the many docking ports in the orbital shipyards around Kuat. The ports were a massive hive of activity. Imperial Star Destroyers being assembled and leaving port on their maiden voyages, cargo haulers of all sizes and models going in and out of the shipyards, delivering materials and equipment to potential buyers.

Tos left the command of the ship under Glii Va. He somewhat trusted the Rodian enough with his vessel, but if he were to be betrayed, nothing would save Glii Va from his wrath. He donned his armor, repainted after the Hypori mission, and made his way through the maze of docking bays and corporations that had their base of operations on the shipyards. It was profitable to collaborate and make deals with Kuat Drive Yards, as much profit could be made piggybacking off of the ship building enterprise. Offers for freighters, single manned craft, and new advanced tech enticed him, but he wasn't here for the petty companies and arms manufacturers. He was here to do business with Kuat Drive Yards itself.

He soon found the company, or rather an official who was acting on the company's behalf in regards to buying and selling hardware and ships. He was a scrawny individual, with a drooping, sharp nose, slicked back dark hair, and skin so pale it made Tos cringe. Nevertheless, he had to deal with him in order to get what he wanted, and he was dead set on this.

"Hello my good man," Tos said, deciding to go for a greeting to maybe get a feel for this man's personality.

The man turned from the data pad in his hands towards Tos, and he was greeted with a look of utter boredom.

"Yes, can I help you?" the official asked in a dull, lackluster tone.

"I would like to purchase a vessel made by your exemplary company. I hear they are of the highest quality."

Maybe flattery would win him some favor with the man. It worked when he bought his C70 Charger Retrofit, although it didn't take much to feed the vanity of a Zabrak, or at least that one particularly. Perhaps the same result could be achieved here?

A spark of excitement tinged in the man's eye's before swiftly disappearing behind a mask of apathy.

"And what model ship would you like to purchase? We have many models of all sizes and uses. Although, from your appearance, you wouldn't be interested in a freighter or a civilian model vessel, that much is certain," the official said.

Despite his obvious appearance, this official seemed to have more intellect than any officer he had encountered so far, and that was saying something.

"You are astute, my good man. I am interested in a vessel that would meet the risk provided by my vocation. Something along the lines of a light vessel with military capabilities, capable to hold enough cargo and men to help me in my tasks," Tos said.

"I..uh," The offical hesitated. "I'm sorry sir, we are not able to sell military vessels to civilian buyers. If you would like, I could perhaps interest you in vessels that can be modified for military purposes?" he suggested, a look of dissapointment across his face.

Tos somewhat empathized with the man. He had seen numerous people looking downright depressed in their vocations, with the nationalization of the industries by the Empire, it limited who they could do business with, robbing the company, and those who dealt with the selling of ships and hardware of credits that could have helped them, and the enthusiasm they once held during the days of the Old Republic. That being said, empathy wouldn't get him anywhere at this point, so he decided to try something that mostly worked amongst Imperial Officers and officials. Bribery.

"How about this. I pay you ten thousand credits to let me buy the ship of my choosing, and you look the other way. If you do this, I can promise more credits in future transactions. So what do you say?" he asked.

The official at first look scandalized, as if the offer offended him to his core. Then a look of concern, parental concern, crossed his face. His family was not doing as well as they were under the Republic. He had to work overtime and volunteer for extra shifts at every turn just to make ends meet. Not to mention his daughter's...condition. With times being tough, he can't afford to pay for the surgury and subsequent therpy that would allow her to live a normal life with his salary. He was only a port official, not a high ranking officer. But this man was willing to pay a huge sum of credits, enough credits that could pay for all the medical expenses, and maybe even more...

"Come right this way sir, I will show you our latest lineup of military vessels. Any specific vessel class you are looking for?"

Tos grinned under his helmet. Today was going his way.

Glii Va was waiting outside the ship for his employer. While he was content with their current ship, it wouldn't hurt to be aboard something new. A change of scenery. And besides, it was getting kinda cramped in the Retrofit. He was about to call Tos on his holoprojecter when the man himself rounded the corner. From the way he was walking, he had bought something good.

"You buy something good? I hope it's bigger than what we have now, it's getting a bit cramped in there" he said.

"Get your shit men, we're moving to our new ship!" Tos said in an almost excited manner, rushing into the Charger to gather his belongings.

As they made their way to a different docking bay, Tos could barely contain his estatic energy. He had gotten a steal on this ship in terms of pricing. The official was more than willing to lower the price in exchange for a couple thousand credits more, and what a vessel he got. When they got to the docking bay, he turned to see Glii Va starign at the ship in slight shock.

"Tos, how in the nine hells did you manage to get this! Kuat Drive Yards don't sell these kinds of vessels to civilian buyers, much less mercenaries," Glii Va said.

"I have my ways. Load your belongings into your bunks and quarters, and when your done, gather the rest of the cargo from the Charger and move it into the new ship. I expect this to be done in a timely manner. If you aren't here by the time we leave, you are left behind."

The rest of the mercenaries practically sprinted on board to claim their spots to offload their personal belongings and to gather the rest of the cargo, slightly jogging with the three crates he had stached away. The ship he had bought was another Old Republic vessel, popular amongst the Jedi and Republic Admirals. It was an Arquitens Class Light Cruiser. Larger than the Charger, complete with better shielding, thicker hull plating, and four quad turbolasers, it was a ship not to be taken lightly.

After the mercs were done loading the extra cargo into the new vessel, and everything seemed to be in order, Tos made his way to the bridge, nodding towards Glii Va and the twilek, whom were sitting in the pilot seats.

"Hey boss, what's going to happen to the Charger now that we have this ship," the twilek asked.

"I sold it to a prospecting bounty hunter. Gave me twenty thousand credits for it. That's almost triple what I paid for it," Tos said.

"Where to now?" Glii Va asked.

"Kamino."

The rodian and twilek nodded and quickly lifted the vessel out of the docking bay and sped away from the dockyards. Glii Va punched in the coordinates for the planet in question, pulled the lever, and the ship quickly disappeared into hyperspace.


	7. New Faces, Same Old Games

Entering his private chamber, Darth Vader pulled up his holo communicator, the hologram of one of his Inquisitors projecting from the device.

"My master, what is your bidding?" The Inquisitor said, bowing in the holographic projection.

"You have proved yourself unreliable. You have failed to capture the Jedi I had tasked you to capture. You possessed the resources of an entire planet, and more than enough soldiers to complete your task, and yet still you failed," he said, his tone one of derision and anger.

The Inquisitor flinched harshly. He had failed to capture the Jedi. It wasn't his fault that the garrison commander was inept, or that the soldiers under his command were equally, if not more so, inept. He did everything he was supposed to. His skill was impeccable. It was the failings of others that dragged him down to failure.

"However, there is a chance to prove your usefulness to me."

The Inquisitor slightly flinched, excitement clearly radiating off of his form.

"You are to hunt down a force sensitive, a Mandalorian, and bring him to me intact. Do this, and I may consider forgiving your previous transgressions", He said. "The force sensitive is wearing clone armor, marked blue. Bring him to me," Darth Vader commanded.

The Inquisitor rapidly raised his head. "I won't fail you my lord. I swear it."

"See to it that you don't. You won't get another chance," he said, then the holo transmission cut, leaving the Inquisitor alone with their thoughts.

'I know I can be a bit unreliable, but loosing the Jedi wasn't my fault! If anyone should be punished it should be the Imperial commander. He was grossly incompetent, yet they look the other way because he's human, and I'm not. Well I will prove them wrong!' he thought, swiftly rising to his feet.

He walked throughout the Raider Class Corvette that was assigned to him. A perk of being someone of importance in the Empire. You get the good shit. This corvette however was built for spec ops missions, with numerous radar dishes on the ventral hull of the vessel. It didn't have the firepower of the stock model, but its purpose wasn't to be a support ship for a flotilla. He had specially designed this ship to be a listening post, to intercept his target's transmissions at will.

"I want any information about a Mandalorian in blue clone armor to be brought up now. Lord Vader wants this person found, and he is not accepting failure," the Inquisitor said while walking onto the bridge.

Immediately the crew began to scour the holonet for any sign of this individual, from core world holonet celebrity gossip to outer rim pirate raid reports by imperial garrisons. Any and every source would be checked. The Inquisitor could say many things about his crew, but he couldn't say they weren't efficient in what they do.

This mission had to be completed, he had to have results for his master. He couldn't fail this one, and he wouldn't.

**Kamino**

Tos was glad that they had reached Kamino. The armor was beginning to chafe him a little, and he was eager to have it refitted with the new upgrades he had been wanting. He steered his ship past the Imperial Star Destroyers, a little intimidated by their immense size. Once he had given the imperial access code he had acquired from the dead Imperial Officer, it was smooth sailing to the surface. He hadn't even painted his ship yet, and it had helped with the disguise that his vessel was Imperial.

The stormy atmosphere pelted his ship with rain as it lowered to one of the cities that dotted Kamino's vast ocean, landing on one of the landing platforms that was big enough for his ship. He donned his helmet and, after lowering the docking ramp, exited the vessel. He had ordered his crew to remain on the ship, as he couldn't be discovered as non-imperial. Then again, his armor was one big give away that he wasn't imperial in the slightest, though he hoped that the officers and officials here would be lazy and incompetent, concurring with the current trend of incompetent imperials.

So far, the trend was correct. The officers and officials didn't even give him a second glance as he made his way inside, which struck him as odd. Sure, he's met some incompetent men in his life, but not as incompetent as these. Maybe he landed at a post that had officers who were lax on regulation, or didn't bother to care if they were enforced or not. Well, he wasn't complaining, it made this a whole lot easier to do.

Soon he found what he was looking for. A Kaminoan, nothing distinguishing about him, minding his own business.

"Excuse me, I was wanting to know if -," he said before being cut off.

"If you are inquiring about purchasing a clone, you must speak to one of the officials in charge of cloning, which would be over there," the Kaminoan said, pointing to a finely dressed Kaminoan conversing with an imperial official.

"That was not what I was about to ask, but thank you all the same. I was actually inquiring about modifying my current set of armor."

The Kaminoan looked at Tos's armor, blinking once, and then nodded in understanding.

"Ah yes, the old Phase One armor. If you would like, I could give you an estimate on the cost of a full set of Phase 2 armor. The armor you are wearing is dreadfully outdated and frankly, out of fashion, to use a human term. If you would please follow -,"

"I was wanting to know if I could combine certain aspects of Phase 2 and 1 together in a single set of armor."

The Kaminoan stopped and stared at Tos for a moment before speaking.

"I am unsure of your meaning. You want to...combine the two armors?"

"No. I would like to take the comfort and flexibility of the Phase 2 set of armor, while retaining the reliability and functionalities of the Phase 1 set, while keeping the Phase 1 appearance."

An awkward silence passed between the two before Tos realized what he had said, and cleared his throat in an embarrassed manner before confirming what the Kaminoan suggested. The Kaminoan nodded and asked the Mandalorian to follow him to the armor-smiths, so that he could properly explain what he wanted without muddling the order with miscommunication. As the two went into the facility, an imperial officer stared at their retreating forms for a few moments before walking towards his office, he had a transmission to make.


	8. Useless in Peace, Beneficial in War

"Thank you for doing business with us. It is not often we deal with non-imperial buyers of our products. If there is anything you require, or if you are interested in doing business with us again, don't hesitate to return or contact us to discuss details Mandalorian," the Kaminoan said, slightly bowing to the armored mercenary in front if him.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you. I will take you up on your offer someday. Farewell," Tos said.

Tos left the main building, clad in his newly refitted armor. It was more comfortable and flexible, like Phase 2, but was reliable and sturdy like Phase 1 while retaining the look of the first version of the armor. The kaminoan he first spoke to mentioned something about buying a clone, and that intrigued him, but that was for another day. The hutt that contracted them to protect the arms dealer was offering another contract, and the pay was good, so he took it. He strode towards his ship, walking past an imperial shuttle that had just landed, and he felt a familiar presence.

It was a cold, sickening presence, darkness radiating from it like heat from a star. He turned to look for it, and saw a strange individual walking towards the building he exited. The individual was a short one, around 5'4, and wore blackened imperial armor plates over a black body suit, the imperial insignia on each shoulder plate. The imperial didn't wear a helmet, and from the green skin tone and somewhat large head, he deduced that it was a Duros.

Something was telling him to keep his distance from this person, and when the Duros activated a double bladed, blood red, lightsabre, it only reinforced this feeling. He needed to leave, and fast.

When he reached his ship and boarded the vessel, he was kinda glad to be away from whatever the Duros was. The darkness that radiated from him, similar to the sith lord from earlier, unnerved him.

"Where are we off to now Tos, any more contracts?" a voice to his left said.

Whirling towards the voice, nearly drawing his blaster carbine, Tos saw that it was the twilek. He hadn't bothered to know his name, as he hadn't mentioned it before, and he couldn't be bothered with the effort to learn it.

"Uh...yea. Yea, we got a contract from a hutt. We gotta rough up some pirates on Florrum for raiding some of his transports, and we gotta bring the heads back to the hutt," Tos said after a minute.

Tos heard a noise of disgust from Glii Va, heard mutterings about how disgusting the hutt was, and he somewhat agreed. Hutts where a blight on the galaxy, and if he could, he would wipe them from existence. But that could practically never be achieved, for the Hutts had their own section of space to themselves, not to mention legions of bounty hunters at their beck and call. If he were to kill one, the rest would rip him apart like a pack of Nexu. He would rather not incur the wrath of the Hutts on himself...yet. Pirates on the other hand, he would slaughter them for fun if he could, but that wouldn't pay for fuel or the contracts of his men, so he would settle for bounties on said pirates.

"Set course for Florrum."

The cruiser soon sped off into the inky blackness towards its destination.

**Kamino**

"You mean to tell me that you had him in your sights, and you lost him!?" The Inquisitor screamed.

He had came to this disgusting water world with one goal in mind. Capture the Mandalorian. Instead, he had to deal with levels of incompetency he hadn't known existed in this galaxy. The blubbering official, with his excuses and half baked attempts at spinning this around, was only digging his own grave deeper than it already was.

"W-Well Inquisitor, w-we-we-we had him in the bui-augh!" the official said before being cut down by the Inquisitor, terrifying the other imperial officers and officials.

The Inquisitor turned around and sped back towards his ship. He didn't have time to deal with the appointment of another official, and he certainly didn't have time to deal with the corpse on the platform. The Mandalorian could be anywhere in the galaxy right now! He needed to find him, and find him quick.

**Florrum**

Tos readied his blaster, waiting for the ship to touch down on the planet. This group of pirates have raided hutt transports and supply ships, causing a little bit too much trouble for the local hutt authority. He was contracted to eliminate the pirates and bring the head of the leader to the hutt that offered a good sum of credits for the deed to be done. The group was rumored to have their base of operations at Hondo Ohnaka's old hideout, once a somewhat wealthy pirate stronghold, now a shabby, decrepit shadow of what it once was, and that's where Tos decided to land the ship.

The entire group was coming along this time. He wanted at least two mercenaries to stay with the ship, but Glii Va convinced him to bring along all the mercenaries. Tos wondered how well equipped these pirates were if they could successfully raid a hutt transport, and they must be somewhat intelligent to avoid repercussion for this long. He slightly smiled, excitement and adrenaline racing through his veins, as the ship shook on landing.

"You ready mate? I'm looking forward to this!" a merc behind him said excitedly.

"Calm down ya bantha, keep a level head in this. I don't want to have to save you again," another voice said.

"Oh come off it Jag, you worry too much. We'll be fine."

A sigh, "If you say so Nix. I still think you need to be careful though."

"Now you sound like mum."

The conversation quickly descended into a small argument, which quickly ended when the landing ramp began to lower. All was quiet save for the noise the ramp was making as it was being lowered. Tos pulled out his DC-15A and gripped the blaster tightly.

' _Here we go, time to see what these pirates are made of.'._

The ramp finally touched down, and Tos expected a hail of blaster fire to greet them, but none came. The group of mercenaries, with Tos in front, quickly exited the ship, looking for any signs of the pirates they were after, but there were none to be seen. Tos and the mercenaries approached the ruined hideout, passing by piles of rubble as they approached. When they entered the building, going through the winding passages, and approached the main hall, they found the pirates they were seeking, passed out on the floor, in a drunken stupor if the numerous bottles of alcohol were any indication.

"I'd thought that we'd have a suitable challenge, but all we got was an easy victory," Glii Va said disappointedly, kicking the leg of a passed out pirate in annoyance.

"Come on Glii Va, they're pirates, what did you expect out of them?" Tos asked.

A slight pause. "Yea, kinda forgot that fact,"Glii Va said. "But how did these bumpkins gain the attention of a minor hutt crime lord if they are this easy to catch off guard."

Tos hummed in response, making his way over to some crates stacked in the far corner of the room. As his men more or less dragged the bodies of the drunken pirates to the ship, he began to have some ideas, which to him seemed crazy...yet profitable as he took in the interior and exterior of the building from earlier. He wanted this place, this planet, for his own. Now of course, he would need to invest heavily in the reconstruction of the entire building, as is was falling to pieces when they got here, and would more than likely cave in on itself once they left. The problem, he noticed with annoyance, was that he didn't know anyone who could fix this in a timely manner. The profit, and the convenience of having a place to store your credits and a place to rest that wouldn't leave you broke, blind or dead by morning is a much needed commodity in today's galaxy. He will discuss this with Glii Va at a later date.

When he reached the crates, he opened them and found that they were filled to the brim with weapons and various narcotics and bags full of powder. Now, the hutt didn't mention anything about returning what was stolen from the cartel, only the heads of those responsible. A slight smirk grew on his face at the amount of credits the crates would sell for on the underground markets, and this time he knew a few people who would offer good prices for high quality goods such as these. He closed the crates and ordered his men to load the crates on board.

"Sir, we got someone that you might want to see," a merc to his right said, gesturing towards a small argument between one of his men, and a rather old weequay pirate.

Seeing as this was the most interesting thing to happen today, Tos decided to see what this was all about.

"Now listen to me, listen to me. I will pay you handsomely if you let me go. I am very generous to my allies and friends, ask them. They all have wonderful opinions of me and my business. Very profitable, I assure you," the weequay said, gesturing with his hands the entire time.

"Uh huh, sure. That's why you are still at this dung heap of a hideout. Sorry if you don't strike me as someone who can make good credits and give them away," the merc holding the priate said.

As the merc began to drag the old pirate towards the ship, his rambling and struggle increased with each step.

"NO no no no no no, I assure you that I have the credits to pay you. I have friends that could help you with anything! I promise! Shugesh the Pirate Lord is honest and true to his word!" he shouts in desperation.

The merc holding the pirate scoffed, but Tos has become interested in what he has said. He had originally not cared whether or not this pirate would die or not, after all, he was pirate scum, but now, he might have just saved himself from death.


	9. Rendevou

"You sure about this Tos? Refurnishing this abandoned shack of a building will cost quite a bit, not to mention replacement of all supports, the cracks along the ceiling that frankly is about to fall in at any moment, and all of that will accompany the cost to fix the power pylons connected to this place, which were damaged or destroyed years ago." Glii Va said.

Tos nodded in affirmation. "We need a place to hole up in in case a job goes bad and we get unwanted heat on our backs, and with what I have planned, we will have lots of heat on us pretty soon if it all comes to fruition. Plus, it could make us a ton of credits. Credit's we'll need if we want to go bigger than what we already do for contracts," he said.

Glii Va sighed, seeming in resignation, but perked up as another thought entered his head.

"But who will we even hire to start this project of yours? Not to mention it's kind of already known to pretty much all of the major players. Once they hear that a small time mercenary owns the planet, they'll be all over you. I like your thinking, but it's wasted here."

Tos huffed a little at his second in command's reluctance to entertain the idea of turning this ruin into a credit . Why couldn't he see the enormous amounts of potential credits hidden under the piles of rubble and cracking walls. This place could make them so many credits that they could possibly quit the mercenary business altogether, but he dismissed that last thought. Being a mercenary was in his blood, he could never turn away from it.

"Well, maybe we'll see eye to eye on this later on. Right now, we have to go," he said.

"Go? Go where Tos? We don't have any new contracts, and we're good on supplies. So what's the reason for leaving?"

Tos turned to Glii Va and, with a slight smirk on his face, said, "An opportunity to make a huge amount of credits playing two sides against each other. We're about to meet some new friends."

**Rannon**

The ship exited hyperspace near the planet, and Tos tapped his fingers against the command chair in anticipation. The weapons crates in the cargo hold will come in handy with his soon to be pawns. The information he got from the imperial officer he killed while hunting the traitor who back stabbed him on the Kashyyk job practically offered up this opportunity to him. He couldn't resist. Helping either side when they offered the credits, all the while damaging them both to the point that if he were to take all their credits and leave, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He wouldn't break a contract with either of them though, that was beneath him and wasn't worth his honor. The report the imperial officer had detailed a rebellion on the planet, and that the garrison wasn't up to the task of hunting down the insurgents. The report accompanied a request for a division of the stormtrooper corps in reinforcements, but since Tos intercepted it, he hoped that the local imperial command would assume that nothing was wrong.

Tos picked up his holocommunicator and input the frequency that the pirate Shugesh gave him after a little persuasion on his part. The Pirate said that these friends of his were rebels, and that they would pay handsomely for any assistance from anyone. That's why the pirate group was raiding the hutt's shipping lanes for weapons, supplies and intelligence, anything the rebels found useful. After a period of waiting a face appeared on his communicator.

It was a rugged, thin face, scarred and grim looking with a wild beard and unkempt crop of dark brown hair on top, with a sharp, forward pointing nose and a thin set of lips accompanying a small, rounded chin, complimenting the high cheek bones. He had to be a little older than twenty years of age, though with the grime and filth all over him, it made him appear much older than he actually was.

Tos was at first skeptical. This young boy was the leader? How could he be trusted to lead with so little life experience under his belt? It didn't make sense.

"I assume that Shugesh was a friend of yours?" Tos asked with a raised brow.

The rebel didn't answer Tos's question. "Who are you? How did you get this frequency? Where is Shugesh?" the man asked in a rapid manner.

Tos raised a hand, chuckling at the barrage of questions. "Take it easy there boss, I can only handle so many questions. To answer two questions with one answer, your friend Shugesh gave me this frequency, because he thought I could help you out, and with the monetary incentive he promised, I couldn't resist. And don't worry about him, he's safe in my holding cell," Tos said, pausing to take a breath.

"To answer your first and final question, I am a mercenary captain looking to make some credits, and I hoped that you would provide them after I give you the supplies that your pirate friend so kindly gave to me in exchange for his life."

The rebel stared at Tos for a good solid minute, then turned away from him to speak to someone out of view. This continued for a while, and as the seconds turned to minutes, Tos began to slightly panic, but breathed an inward sigh of relief when the rebel returned.

"Meet us at these coordinates, and we'll talk," the rebel said before the transmission was cut.

Alright, it was a start. Time to meet these rebels.


	10. First Impressions

Tos was less than impressed when they met the rebels. When he heard the term rebels, he expected people that actually looked threatening and somewhat organized. People who actually knew what they were doing. These people were none of those things. Glii Va shared his sentiment when they walked down the ramp towards the gaggle-fuck of rebels milling about the area. Most of them were covered in dirt and filth, wearing old, torn and frankly just idiotic things for their apparel. Their weapons made him visibly cringe at their condition. He had half a mind to turn back now and talk to the repulsive hutt about getting a few more contracts, but a small look from Glii Va reminded them why they were here. Why he personally dragged them all the way to this backwater planet in the Outer Rim. To make credits.

The Mandalorian, with Glii Va in tow, came face to face with the group of rebels, standing a few feet from their leader, the rest of the mercenaries standing guard against betrayal, blasters at the ready. Tos and the rebel stared at each other, sizing up one another, a small contest of wills and strength. Now that he got a proper look at him, instead of a hazy holo projection, he saw that this man was no stranger to combat. Scars covered any part of skin not covered by armor, some were new, others were old and faded, standing out against his tanned skin. He was muscular, and he had confidence, clearly no stranger to meeting mercenaries or others of similar professions. While his apparel left much to be desired, his demeanor offset that, making him the most experienced person amongst the rebels in Tos' eyes.

"Where is Shugesh?" the rebel aggressively asked.

Tos turned and whistled, two mercenaries returning to the ship and dragging the Weequay out into the sunlight, the old pirate still pestering them with bribes and promises of wealth and power.

"Here is the pirate, safe and sound. Now, onto more pressing matters," Tos began. "You are in a tight spot, if what I'm hearing from the pirate scum is true."

The rebel gave the pirate a harsh glare, which was returned by a shrug and a face that said 'What did you expect crazy?', before sighing in frustration and resignation. With reluctance, he gave a stiff nod, which pleased Tos greatly. Now he had pretty much all the cards in negotiating with him, and he was going to get every single credit he could out of them.

"You are in luck, my friend. I happen to be in possession of some items which I think you would find most interesting and valuable. Three crates of weapons, five crates of supplies and munitions, and a crate chock full of battle stims, all at a reasonable price of course," he said, enjoying the look of desperation and need on the rebels' face.

With a heavy sigh, the rebel gestured for Tos to continue, much to his delight.

"At the low price of ten thousand credits, all of those crates can be yours. If you have some items of value, perhaps say experimental weapons, info or anything of the sort, we could lower the overall price of such quality goods, so as to better meet your financial needs," Tos offered, nearly laughing at the incredulous smile on Glii Va's face, barely keeping his emotions in check. The supplies were subpar at best. He wasn't even sure the weapons or munitions would even function, much less actually harm anyone, and the battle stims were woefully out of date. He was basically robbing them, and yet he felt no pity towards them. The pirate had made them out to be well organized rebels, a possible worth while investment of credits and effort, yet they were nothing of the sort. A group of ragtag, unkempt and untrained thieves and bandits, masquerading as liberty toting heroes fighting for a noble cause, with no goal beyond exterminating the Empire's presence on Rannon. Unguided murderers and killers, pretending to be soldiers and heroes.

The other rebels, as they heard Tos explaining the deal, grew more and more outraged with each word the Mandalorian said. By the time he had finished, the rest of the mercenaries had subtly trained their blasters at the group due to the near blatantly murderous looks sent Tos' way. He himself had silently put a hand on his blaster carbine incase one of them decided to try their luck. It wouldn't be the first time, and he doubted it would be the last.

"We don't have ten thousand credits, but we do have some old war gear that you might like. Would you like to see?" the rebel offered.

Tos nodded, and the rebel leader gestured to one of his men whom gave a nod, and ran into the forest, three others following in his wake. What he saw advancing out of the woodline nearly made his heart stop with excitement. A six legged walker, with four laser cannons up front, two in the back, and one large mass driver cannon on top with an open gunner's seat, slowly walked into the clearing, stopping thirty feet from Tos and his men. Behind his helmet, Tos' jaw had dropped in sheer astonishment. To find one of these old war machines, you had to have lots of luck. To not only obtain one, but a functional one, you had to be the luckiest person in the Galaxy. And yet these ragged bandits had managed to obtain one. He noticed the Imperial Cog painted onto its sides, large portions of it were roughly scraped off. Potentially stolen from a local Imperial Garrison.

He had to have it, no matter the condition or how he would pay for it. He must have it.

"Does this interest you, bounty hunter?" the rebel asked, as if he knew that this would have the affect it did on him.

"This," Tos cleared his throat, "does pique my interests, my good man. The reasonable price of the crates of supplies has just dropped to a measly four thousand credits, practically a steal," he said.

"Then we have a deal then, bounty hunter. And, if you want to stick around, there's the possibility of 'tactically acquiring' a few more of these old things. You in?" asked the rebel, an open hand reaching towards the mercenary..

It nearly drove him insane how tempting this offer was. A chance to not only make credits doing an easy job, but to obtain more Old Republic Walkers. He knows he shouldn't accept the deal, it seemed too good to be true, and it probably was. The walker drew his attention again. It practically had him shaking with excitement, and from the look the rebel was giving him, he knew it as well. He glanced at Glii Va, asking for his opinion, but the rodian shrugged his shoulders, practically saying 'You're the boss, I go where you go'. With that in mind, he looked at the rebel once again and grasped the outstretched hand in agreement. Both men didn't realize the firestorm of trouble they had brought upon themselves.


	11. Plans In Motion, Stages Being Set

"What is it that is so important that it requires _my_ attention," the customs officer asked, his voice harsh and unyielding.

The officer had just arrived to replace the previous customs officer after their shift was over, and not even a few standard minutes later, he was getting a request for his person in the main control tower. He didn't even get to take a sip of his morning cup of caf, which annoyed him to no end. Sometimes he wondered if being so dependent on a morning beverage to function was a weakness, but on a regular day that thought was usually swept away in a wave of caffeine and creamer. Today, that was not the case, and he was more irritable than usual.

This was going to be a long day.

"Sorry sir, but incoming has requested your presence personally."

An annoyed sigh. Another high and mighty officer, senator or merchant requesting the best lodgings and landing pads he had to offer, with all the snark, demeaning comments, and utter nonsense that was their manner of speaking to others not of their class.

"Fine. I'll take over from here. See to it that landing pads 3 through 10 are taken care of. They were having technical difficulties last I checked."

The junior officer complied with his order with speed, and he turned his attention to the screen, overlooking the data being displayed.

' _Ship Class: Raider Class Corvette. Clearance codes: 11J-213'_

He almost choked on his own spit when he read the clearance code. That was reserved for extremely important imperial military officers, moffs, or Inquisitors. People who did not like to be kept waiting. He rushed over to the comm unit.

"Raider Class Corvette, this is Control Tower 3SB, you are cleared to land on landing pad 2."

"Excellent, and make sure that your stormtrooper attache is awaiting my arrival in parade formation. If not, I'd hate to find another officer to replace you," the voice on the other end sneered, before cutting off with a blip of static.

The officer never moved faster in his life. He spoke so fast to so many people he wondered if he was actually speaking understandable words. More likely it was sounds of utter fear and anxiety, and those that he spoke to understood the underlying message.

The result of that mad scramble was a formation of 500 stormtroopers, all standing at attention, with him and a junior officer at the head of the formation, stiff as boards as they waited. Their terror only grew as they saw the silhouette of the corvette in question slowly descending from the atmosphere towards the landing pad, the blood red imperial cog painted on the port and starboard side of the vessel only adding to their stress.

The sounds of the corvette's landing gear extending and making contact made him shiver in fear, the hissing of the hydraulics as the landing ramp lowered made the junior officer visibly flinch. A single figure slowly made their way down off the ramp and onto the landing platform, their visage made the officer's heart race. He was sure that it would find a way to beat itself out of his chest before the day was through. He held his breath as the Inquisitor finally stopped a few feet in front of him, turning left and right, surveying all the soldiers behind him.

"I'm impressed. Most impressed. You managed to round up the entire stormtrooper attache assigned to this facility and get them into proper formation on time. Well done."

The praise, if said by anyone else, would have meant something to the officer. But coming from this….thing, he doubted that it was capable of telling even the most simplest of truths. The way its voice seemed to hiss, its demeaning tone, the nearly imperceptible mechanical twinge every time it spoke. It wasn't natural. It was an abomination. Utterly evil, with no remorse.

"Thank you, Inquisitor."

Its emotionless face, alien, twitched, before smoothing into a blank canvas once more.

"I am tracking someone, and I was told that they were on this planet. As we speak. Therefore, I will begin my investigation here."

"Of course, Inquisitor," he replied, having no actual authority to even suggest his presence wasn't welcome or wanted.

"Ergo, since I will be investigating the entirety of the planet to find who I seek, I will need some...assistance to help expedite my efforts. Therefore, I am pleased that you have volunteered the entirety of your stormtrooper attache, along with a battalion of Imperial Army soldiers, vehicles, assets and more to help with this investigation," the Inquisitor spoke, an order in all but name.

The officer reigned in the impulse to tell off this Inquisitor, his face minutely twitching as his mind warred between fear and anger. He then put on a mask of compliance, for his own sake. Raising objections to moffs, Inquisitors, or anyone above his rank absconding with his military units, _assigned to him_ , was unthinkable, an unfortunate fact of being on a backwater with no powerful friends to protect him from such predations.

"Of course, Inquisitor. Anything to expedite your investigation," he ground out.

"Excellent! I shall begin immediately," the Inquisitor spoke, walking past him. He stopped, turned back towards the customs officer, and spoke.

"For the Empire."

He didn't want to say it. By the spirits he didn't want to say it. Not to this...thing after it usurped his authority. However, it would mean death. All eyes were on him. Every stormtrooper, every deck officer within earshot. Even his junior officer watched him with baited breath, waiting for a sign of either weakness or strength. He turned to stare at the Inquisitor, and with a fist to his chest, he spoke.

"For the Empire."

**Rebels**

They surrounded the holo-projector, looking at the map of the planet being displayed, the terrain features glowing with a blue hue. Tos kept an eye on those that surrounded him behind his helmet while paying the barest form of attention to what the rebels were discussing. He turned his eye to the planet. Rannon was a planet carpeted in thick forestry, leagues upon leagues of thick woodlands and wilderness, pock marked by semi-sufficient settlements and small stretches of farmlands, owned by farmers that have cleared out small, rectangular plots so that their crops could have a chance to flourish without being smothered by the yawing trunks of the surrounding trees.

Travel overland was nigh impossible for heavy machinery or large vehicles of any kind. Only through rigorously maintained dirt pathways could such vehicles travel between settlements, and those were reserved for the capital and its surrounding satellite cities, which were linked to the local space port, the military installation, and the manufacturing centers. Ad Hoc pathways, created by farmers for their cargo haulers to move their goods from their plots of land to the local markets in the settlements nearby, snaked throughout the planet, unofficial by nature, and entirely unsecure from highway robbers and gangs of thieves.

Imperial control was relegated to the largest of the settlements and the capital, its authority tenuous at best in the settlements on the fringes. It was ripe for rebel activity.

"...and here is where we believe to be an imperial munitions stockpile. Our intel suggests that it is relatively unguarded and chock full of munitions, ready to resupply a local imperial garrison. If we take it, we could deprive the garrison of their munitions. After that, we will launch hit and run attacks on their patrols, slowly whittling down their ability to react to our actions until they can't do anything but guard the settlement. Then, that is when we strike with everything we have. We will overrun their defenses, and the settlement will be free of imperial rule."

Tos turned his attention to where the rebel leaders were gesturing to. It was a munitions cache near an outpost on the fringes, surrounded by heavily wooded hills, with only one pathway to and from the cache, which leads to the outpost. The outpost lay near a settlement, semi-sufficient, small when compared to the satellite cities near the capital, but it sprawled nonetheless. It was out of the way, which means that it wasn't on the priority list for supply by imperial forces in the capital. A ripe target.

"Any intel on the imperial garrison?" Glii Va asked.

"Our intelligence has confirmed that the outpost and the settlement is host to a full battalion of imperial army troopers. What we have trouble identifying with certainty is their capabilities. From our past skirmishes and ambushes, they are mainly infantry with standard imperial loadouts, though they may have heavy vehicles or walkers."

Tos raised an eye at that. "May? You aren't sure as to what they're killing people with? You fight them regularly don't you?"

A glare was shot his way, the rebel leader doing his best to not throttle the mercenary there and then. "As much as it may be to the contrary to what you are expecting, we tend to not stick around long enough for them to pull out their heavy payloads and armor. We suspect they may have them due to our spies finding multiple heavy vehicle garages and maintenance bays, though they couldn't find out more without being spotted."

Tos nodded at that. Fair enough.

"The troopers stationed in the outpost are due to be replaced within a week. This is when we will raid their munitions cache. The troopers here now are veterans, skilled and wary of our usual tricks and traps. We…" the rebel leader sighed with remorse, "we lost a lot of good people in the last few months. With any luck, this new company of imperials will be dumb, slow, and ready for slaughter."

The way the rebel leader growled out that last bit had Tos on edge, his hand twitching towards his carbine. Only by reminding himself that he worked for them did he stay his hand. Glii Va noticed his boss's action, and nodded in shared concern. After a few minutes conversing with the rebel leader, a man named Eddant Jescol, he can summarize the man in a sentence.

Death to all imperials, no matter who.

He was vicious, ruthless, and downright sadistic when it came to imps. He wouldn't doubt that the man hasn't personally tortured a decent amount of imps during this rebellion, and he didn't doubt that the man would continue to do so long after. It worried him, honestly. He understood the hatred of the imps. He could get behind it, but that would cut in half how many contracts that were available if he decided to not work with the imps, so he put on a mask of professionalism when it came to dealing with imperials. But this man took it to levels he was uncomfortable with, with Glii Va sharing his feelings.

After this contract was complete, with any and all Old Republic war gear safely tucked away on Florrum in his secret stache, he would black list this planet on his hyperdrive coordinates listings. He doubted that he would be welcome back after this, and there wasn't much for him here anyway. Win win for everyone.

"Our raid on the munitions cache will also keep us combat effective for around….eh..three months, give or take," a rebel off to Eddant's left spoke, continuing the pseudo briefing.

Tos stared at the rebel, a short weequay with cybernetic implants covering the left half of his face, in astonishment.

"Only three months? That supply cache is for an entire battalion, how can you burn through that much ammunition that fast?!"

The rebel leader sighed in annoyance. This wasn't going to go away, was it? This mercenary questioning things. It's gonna get old, fast.

"We do not limit ourselves to this corner of the planet. We run operations all across Rannon, organizing and supplying recidivist movements and rebel cells, providing them training and intelligence so that our end goal of driving off the bastard imps is closer to reach. We were going to be able to go for a full year without having to get supplies, but _somebody_ took all of our money," he said pointedly. "Now, we will have to rethink our means of supply, since we no longer have a secure source. Those Hutt shipments were keeping this operation afloat more or less, but now, we will have to do without if we are to keep this rebellion going, or find another secure supplier, and those are in short supply nowadays."

Tos exchanged a look with Glii Va and opened a private comms channel.

"I'm thinking about offering our services doing mercy missions and milk runs. It'll keep us out of their hair for the most part, and will get us in their good graces...somewhat," he proposed.

Glii Va's brow, or what counted as one for Rodians, raised slightly in question and slight amusement.

"I don't think you'll get them to like you even if you deliver him an entire fleet of capital ships and all the imps on Rannon on a silver platter. He's dead set on not liking you."

Tos inwardly sighed in acceptance and frustration. He saw the signs of a difficult contract the moment he felt the need to draw his carbine, but the promise of Old Republic war gear swept away any and all trepidations and concerns, and now he was paying for it by dealing with an angry and irritable rebel cell who will probably skin him alive if he so much as entertains the idea of acting too out of line.

"I know, but I got to do something to show that I am at least _trying_ to get on his good side."

An eye roll of exasperation.

"It's your call boss, even if it is doomed to fail."

Tos shot his second a rude gesture with no actual bite behind it, which earned him a small chuckle from the Rodian. He switched off the private comm channel and returned his attention to the pseudo briefing.

"...but if we petition the aid of the local gangs, we become beholden to their wishes, as they have connections to the local imperial elite on Rannon. We would shackle ourselves to becoming thugs to crime lords and syndicates, our original mission forgotten. There's also the possibility that we wouldn't get the help we need either," the weequay pointed out, crossing their arms in frustration.

"I know, I know, but what choice do we have? We'll either have to increase the amount of supply raids we do, or have our strength sapped until we are dead men walking, waiting for the imps to execute us," the rebel leader argued.

"There is an alternative to those options," Tos said.

"Really? What bright ideas do you wish to reveal to us that we haven't thought of already?" the rebel leader sneered, his words venomous to an absurd degree.

Tos scoffed. "I suggest that I make supply runs to ensure that my employers can still pay me and that I can see my contract fulfilled."

Initially, the rebel leader wanted to tell the mercenary to bugger off into some dark corner of the base and wait for orders so he wouldn't have to look at him, but a stern look from the weequay stopped him in his tracks. It was a good idea, but it had many flaws, too many for him to be comfortable with. However, they didn't have many options to choose from. The gangsters in the satellite cities and the capital were a hard no for him. He wouldn't associate his rebellion with scum and slavers. Finding a new supplier was hard enough already, and finding a trustworthy one was tantamount to finding pure sensana spices on his doorstep.

He was out of options, but he would make the mercenary wait for his decision.

He felt petty, and wanted to exact some sort of revenge for practically robbing them of money and equipment. Shugesh was always willing to haggle on the price for supplies, and both parties usually benefited from such exchanges, but the way the mercenary practically held the supplies for ransom. It was highway robbery. He was being a hypocrite for thinking such things, as his group had held up imperial freighters and cargo haulers before, but he dismissed such thoughts due to one, simple fact. Those they robbed were imperials.

"Let me think on it, mercenary. I have to discuss it with my lieutenants," Eddant responded.

He then left the room, followed by all of the rebels in attendance, including a massive ithorian dressed in dark, boiled leathers and durasteel plates. What caught Tos' eye was the Z-6 rotary cannon strapped to the alien's back, the metal gleaming as if freshly scrubbed and polished. It held his attention more so than anything in the room. It was beyond perfect, the ultimate handheld death machine capable of wasting waves upon waves of enemies. He was gonna get that gun, one way or another.

"You know you can always buy one, boss," Glii Va suggested halfheartedly, already knowing what Tos was going to say next.

"I want that one though. I'm going to have it," the mandalorian said with utter conviction.

The Rodian sighed in exasperation and weary acceptance. He was not paid enough to deal with this poodo.


End file.
